Ripples, Waves, Tsunamis
by Xomniac
Summary: AU: When it isn't trying to kill you, the New World can be a wondrous place. It's also a place where your past generally can't find you. The key word, of course, being 'generally'.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

The story opens, as it so often does, upon the sunny deck of the Thousand Sunny, home and primary, secondary and tertiary methods of transportation of the globally-infamous Straw Hat Pirates, as it sailed through one of the ever-rare peaceful stretches of ocean to be found in the New World.

The Sunny had reached said stretch about a day prior after leaving the blazing area of water it had surfaced in after leaving Fishman Island, following the course of the steadiest of the three needles in the ship's Log Pose.

The reason as to _why_ the Straw Hats were following such a course, despite their captain's frequent and vigorous protests, was actually quite simple: Their navigator had put her foot down... His throat... While wearing a steel-toed boot.

To be fair, the extreme reaction wasn't entirely _her_ fault. After all, she _had_ almost been carbonized by an underwater volcano that week, so she had no desire to go close to another one, especially one that the Log Pose wasn't even _registering._

Either way, after leaving the marine inferno, the ship and its crew were put through what could best be described as a maritime hell, wherein they were put through a gauntlet of ordeals. These trials included, but were most _certainly_ not limited to, snap-freezes that literally shattered the ocean beneath them and put them on the lookout for Ex-Admiral Aokiji, massive lightning bolts soaring down from the clear open sky, at least three random waves twice the height of the megagiant Oars, and enough Sea King attacks to fill their pantry for a month, even _after_ factoring in their captain's appetite. Honestly, the things were _obsessed_ with them, and the way they kept staring contemplatively at their Captain was rather disturbing.

After a week of the madness, they well and truly understood why the first half of the Grand Line was called what it was. Their introduction to Paradise looked like a spring picnic in comparison!

But, nevertheless, Mother Nature had _finally_ taken pity on them and given the crew a much-needed reprieve, one that the crew was enjoying to its fullest.

The crew's swordsmaster and firstmate, Roronoa Zoro, had, unsurprisingly, curled up under one of the railings to take a nap, sake bottle forgotten beside him. The sniper and shipwright, Usopp and Franky, were seated under the mainmast, comparing notes on some sort of new cannon. The doctor, Tony Tony Chopper, was simply lying on the forecastle happily sunning his fur.

The navigator, Nami was seated on the quarterdeck by her tangerine trees updating her maps, and the archaeologist, Nico Robin, was lounging on a deck chair nearby, a book in hand. The cook, Sanji, had firmly parked himself on the ladder to said quarterdeck, and was currently in a heated argument with the musician, Brook, over whether he could go and play music there or not. And as for their captain, Monkey D. Luffy? He was sitting on top of the lion's head bowsprit, eagerly scanning for a new island.

"Naaaamiiiii!" He whined impatiently. "How much longer until we get there!?"

Nami rolled her eyes and contemplated telling him _again_ that she didn't have a clue, but she was saved the trouble.

"CAN IT, LUFFY!" Sanji barked as he took his attention off Brook for a moment. "NAMI-SWAN AND ROBIN-CHWAN ARE TRYING TO RELAX, I WON'T HAVE YOU BOTHERING THEM!"

"That is the exact same goal I desire as well, Sanji!" Brook protested indignantly as he brandished his violin. "Nothing would warm my heart more than to serenade them so that they might enjoy this lovely day... even though I don't have a heart in the first place! Yohohoho!"

Sanji snorted derisively, causing Brook's eye sockets to somehow contrast in annoyance. "I know you, Brook. You're just going to sing about panties!" He walked up to the musician and jabbed a finger into his sternum. "I'M WISE TO YOUR TRICKS!"

"Oh, you wound me, Sanji!" Brook gasped, putting his carpals to his foreskull and mock-fainting at forty-five degrees. "I swear to my afro that I will not sing about panties, you have my word! I will be a complete gentleman!" The impossible blast of gas that escaped his fleshless cheeks did not support his position.

"Oh yeah?" Sanji huffed out a cloud of smoke. "Sing me a few lyrics."

Almost instantly, Brook snapped his violin to his chin, brought his bow to its strings, and started to play. _"Ooooooh, nothing quite so soothes, as the sight of bloom-!"_

"THAT TEARS IT!" The cook roared as he snapped his foot up into the skeleton's jaw. Unfortunately, in the haze of his chivalrous fury, Sanji put more force into his kick than he intended. As a result, Brook's skull wound up popping straight off of his spinal column and soaring high into the air. By the time it started to fall down once anew, the Sunny had already moved forwards enough that the skull plummeted into the water with a definitive plunk.

For a moment, all movement on the Thousand Sunny froze as the crewmates took in the turn of events. Then...

" _MY AFRO!"_ Brook howled as he materialized his soul in Sanji's face, allowing the rest of his skeleton to clatter to lifelessly clatter to the deck. "WITHOUT THAT AFRO, LABOON WILL NEVER RECOGNIZE ME! IF MY SKULL DISAPPEARS INTO THE OCEAN, I'LL HAUNT YOU STRAIGHT TO THE GRAVE AND BEYOND, YOU BASTARD!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Sanji swiftly apologized as he backed away from the apoplectic spectre. "I'll get it back, I swear!"

"Haven't you done enough, shit-cook?" Zoro groaned as he slowly roused himself from his slumber, stretching in an effort to work some life back into his limbs. "I'll go and get it. Besides, you'd probably die in ten seconds if you went into these waters anyway."

Sanji's eye twitched furiously for a moment before he shot a scowl at his age-old rival. "Oh yeah? Like you could do any better, mossbrain!"

"Dartboard brow!"

"Broken compass!"

"You wanna go, honorary okama?!"

" _I'LL TURN YOU INTO CHARCOAL YOU FUCKING-!"_

The clash was interrupted by a loud splash behind the ship.

"What now?" Zoro demanded.

"I believe that Nami might have gotten impatient with your bickering." Robin (Well, _a_ Robin) informed them as she sat on a nearby bulwark, smiling airily.

"What makes you say that, Robin-chwan?" Sanji asked enthusiastically.

"Oh, just something in the way she looked like she wanted to rip your heads off before diving over the side of the ship."

"WHAT!?" Sanji squawked before hastily scrambling for the railing, kicking his shoes off as he went. "WAIT FOR ME, NAMI-SWAN, I'LL SAVE Y-!" CLUNK!

Sanji was cut off by a sopping wet hair-adorned skull flying up to slam into his forehead before bouncing onto the deck, prompting Brook's skeleton to spring to life and pounce on it eagerly.

"IF YOU REALLY WANT TO HELP, THEN THROW ME A LINE ALREADY! AND HURRY! I THINK THERE'S SOMETHING MOVING DOWN HERE AND I DON'T WANT TO GIVE IT ANY IDEAS!"

One hastily flung rope later and Nami was back on the Sunny's deck, toweling her hair dry while Brook bowed before her over and over again.

"Thank you, Nami my dear, _thank you!"_ The skeleton sobbed, despite not having any actual eyes to sob with. "You just saved my chances of reuniting with Laboon! I can never repay you! I'll write songs in your name, epic ballads that will be sung throughout the world! I'll need some inspiration for them, may I-?"

"Finish that sentence and I'll throw _you_ overboard next." Nami threatened flatly.

Brook hastily switched tracks. "By the way, I'm impressed by how effortlessly you were able to retrieve my skull!"

Nami paused in her drying as she blinked in confusion at him. "Huh? What are you talking about? It was only ten meters deep by the time I got it."

Brook nodded in agreement. "Maybe so, but I know better than anyone that my afro weighs a lot once it becomes submerged in water! I've never noticed it before, but you must be a fantastic swimmer if you were able to retrieve it so effortlessly!"

Nami beamed visibly at the praise, jutting her chest out a bit in pride. "Heh, thanks! I learned young while I-!" Without warning, she suddenly cut herself off, freezing in place.

Brook blinked in confusion, albeit without eyelids. "Hm? Is everything alright Na-?"

SLAM!

Once more, Brook was cut off by a harsh kick from Sanji, although this time he was merely thrown through a wall, as opposed to over the side of the ship.

"Wire your damn jaw shut, you stupid skeleton!" Sanji scowled. "Stop bringing up bad memories for Nami-sw-!" SMASH! SLAM! "ACK!" His tirade was interrupted by a hail of ammunition, metal and biological alike, slamming into his back.

"How about _you_ stop putting holes in our ship!?" Franky demanded as he cocked his Weapons Left. "It is SUUUUUPER annoying to keep repairing the damage you cause!"

"Yeah!" Usopp agreed, waving his Kabuto around furiously. "Do you _want_ to sink the Sunny like the Merry!?"

"Oh bite me, you two! This has nothing to do with-!"

"-Rocket!"

"-wait, did you guys hear tha-"

Whatever Sanji was going to say was cut off by Luffy bodily slamming into him, sending the two into a tangled, uncontrolled tumble into the railing.

"... Luffy, I'm thinking of a phrase. If you say that phrase, or anything related to that phrase, I'll beat you bloody. Now... why did you hit me?"

"Uh... I'm hungry?"

" _WRONG ANSWER!"_

THWACK!

"OUCH!"

"AND AS FOR YOU TWO-!" KRACK! "OW! WH- _CHOPPER!?"_

"STOP FIGHTING, DAMN IT! I WANTED TO SPEND THE DAY RELAXING, NOT PIECING YOU MORONS BACK TOGETHER!"

"AREN'T YOU MAKING YOUR JOB THAT MUCH HARDER BY HITTING ME!?"

"AT LEAST I KNOW HOW TO CAUSE THE LEAST DAMAGE WHILE PUTTING YOU IDIOTS DOWN! NOW SHUT UP SO I CAN APPLY SOME _PHYSICAL THERAPY!"_

"Alright, alright, that's enough already!" Franky snapped, grabbing the two by the scruff of their necks and pulling them apart. At least until Chopper switched into Heavy Point and snagged him in a headlock.

Sanji, for his part, spotted Brook trying to sneak away as he dodged away from the pair's flailing. "Oh no you don't!" He bellowed as he dove at leapt at the undead musician.

"Okay… this is getting a little out of hand… I'll just..." Usopp muttered nervously. He started to carefully edge away from the fight... until a fist flew out and impacted his jaw, spinning him in place before he flopped down face-first.

"Et tu, Luffy?" he groaned into the deck.

"Hey, you guys were all fighting each other, and I didn't wanna get left out!"

"Oh, well in that case- USOPP RUBBER BAND OF DOOM!"

"OW! HEY, WATCH IT, THAT WAS MY EYE!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I- _TABASCO STAR!"_

"HOOOOOT!"

"AND _THAT'S_ WHY YOU KEEP THE CLASSICS!"

A deck above the chaos, Zoro and Robin calmly overlooked the free-for-all brawl.

"Dumbasses." The swordsman muttered.

Robin chuckled goodnaturedly. "I'm actually surprised that you're not joining them."

"Are you kidding?" Zoro scoffed as he brandished the sake bottle he was carrying. "I am _way_ too drunk for that." He glanced at the fight again, where Franky was outright _sitting_ on Luffy. "Oooor maybe not drunk enough." He punctuated the statement with a gulp of sake before offering the bottle to Robin. "Want a shot?"

Robin contemplated it for a moment before noticing a conspicuously empty spot of deck. "In a second."

Inside Sunny's dining Hall, Nami sighed tiredly as she strolled down the corridor that lay on the outside of the aquarium, contemplating the myriad of aquatic fauna that populated the tank's insides.

"Nami?"

To her credit, the navigator barely flinched as (a) Robin laid a hand on her shoulder without warning.

"Is everything alright?" The 'archaeologist' asked in concern.

Nami bit her lip sadly. "I... yes. It's... just bad memories, that's all. I'll be fine."

'Robin' stared at her silently for a moment before squeezing her shoulder comfortingly. "You can always talk to us if you need to."

Nami nodded slightly before slowly pulling away. "I'm... just going to turn in early. Keep an eye on the Log Poses and wake me up if anything changes, alright?"

'Robin' watched her for a moment more before sighing and nodding. "Very well. Sleep tight, Nami." And with that, she was gone.

Nami sighed heavily as she stared sullenly into the depths of the aquarium. Specifically, she was contemplating one of its larger inhabitants: A megamouth shark, snoozing comfortably on the sand lining the bottom. It wasn't exact, but with it's jaw closed it looked almost like a-

Nami spun on her heel and marched out of the corridor, harshly banishing the train of thought to the deepest, darkest pits of her mind.

 **-o-**

Several hours and one impromptu post-brawl party later, the Straw Hats were sleeping the night away in their rooms, dead to the world at large. The Thousand Sunny rocked peacefully in the waves as its twin paw-anchors held it in place, the ship itself appearing to rest in the moonless night.

Unfortunately, the world was not dead to them.

That fact was made harshly clear by a hand slipping out of the water and clutching at one of the Sunny's anchor-chains. Said hand was slowly joined by another, and the two began working their way up the chain in tandem, working together to haul their owner, a large, unidentifiable figure, out of the water and up onto the ship.

Upon reaching the bulwark, the figure gripped the edge of the ship and _hauled_ himself up and over the edge of the ship and onto the deck. The figure landed with a surprising amount of grace, freezing as what little 'thump' he made seemed to ring out across the deck like cannonfire.

Below deck, Nico Robin shifted minutely in her bed as a multitude of instincts raised a ruckus in her mind. She then settled down as said instincts were silenced by the warm, comfortable, _safe_ feeling that seemed to emanate from her bed.

Once the figure was certain that he had managed to infiltrate the ship undetected, he started to skulk his way across the deck, eyes sweeping across the deck in an effort to estimate the likely location of his target. Ultimately, he swiftly but stealthily made his way across the deck's lawn and up the stairs to the door on the ship's second level.

Applying a minute amount of force that his frame didn't bely, the figure pushed the door open and slid into the ship's kitchen. He crept over the floorboards, making certain that his weight was always properly distributed so that he never made a sound.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the figure reached his destination: the freezer. He grasped the handle and gave it a testing tug... before withholding an exasperated sigh as the door refused to so much as budge, on account of the band of metal across the doors he had failed to take into account. Without missing a beat, the figure ran his hand over the metal that held said slab in place before finally allowing himself a relieved sigh as he found what he was looking for.

The figure patted himself down for a second before withdrawing his tool of choice: A thin, wedge-shaped piece of metal. He then slid the tip of the wedge into a seam in the metal, holding it in place. He paused for a moment before swiftly raising his fist and bringing it down on top of the wedge. He then repositioned the wedge to another part of the same seam and repeated the process within seconds of the first impact.

The figure then went completely still, listening intently for any and all responses to the swift metallic thunks that had arisen from his actions. Satisfied once more that he was yet undetected, the figure worked his fingers into the seam and slowly levered the metal off of the bar, thus allowing him to swing the freezer's doors open.

The figure raised widened his eyes in surprise at the copious amounts of meat that stuffed the cold storage unit, but he definitely did _not_ complain. Instead, he drew a large net off his back and shook it open before swiftly, albeit painstakingly silently, emptying the contents of the freezer into his net.

Once he had filled the net with as much as he could carry, which was a little over ninety percent of the freezer thanks to the size of both himself and his net, he tied it shut and slung it over his back again, barely even flinching under the weight.

Once more, the figure slunk out of the kitchen as silently as he could manage, sliding the door shut behind him. The interloper slowly made his way down the stairs and to the bulwark before raising his right arm and leg up onto the railing, preparing to vault into the ocean and off to freedom, leaving none of the ship's inhabitants any the wiser.

And he would have gotten away with it, too... if not for the electrified pole of metal that slammed down on top of his skull, causing him to drop the net and stumble back from the railing as he clutched his throbbing cranium.

"You chose the _wrong_ night to make yourself an acceptable target, asshole." Nami snarled, tapping her Sorcery Clima-Tact in her hand.

The figure's reply was to shake his head furiously as he cleared the fog of pain from his skull. He then proceeded to snarl furiously as he rounded on thief and drew himself up to his full height. His very, very, _very_ tall full height.

Nami blinked in numb shock as she slowly looked up at the massive form towering above her. Because of the lack of moonlight shrouding the surroundings into darkness, it was impossible to make out any fine details about the prowler, but the general gist of it was that he was _huge,_ his full ten feet utterly dwarfing her meager five-foot-seven-stature.

"Uh..." Nami grinned shakily as she tried to restart her train of thought. "On second thought... truce?"

The figure narrowed his eyes savagely. As means of response, he reached over his shoulder and whipped off a rough trident that looked like a bunch of metal rods that had been forcibly bent into shape, instead of forged or cast.

Nami swallowed heavily as she redoubled her grip on her Clima-Tact. "Guess not..."

In most other situations, Nami would have been producing thunderclouds like nobody's business for a Lightning Bolt Tempo so that she could fry her opponent to a smoking crisp. Unfortunately for her, in those situations, she _wasn't_ on her own ship, which she very much did _not_ want to devastate with a stray shot of lightning, gale-force winds, or whatever else she could use.

As such, Nami was forced to fall back on the only two tactics available to her: putting her relatively rusty bojutsu skills to use, and...

Nami took a deep breath as she prepared to scream-

CLANG!

And promptly snapped her mouth shut as she barely managed to redirect a savage thrust of the thief's trident, which was swiftly followed up by a hail of heavy blows that she was forced to block, each impact against her Clima-Tact feeling like a sledgehammer.

' _Damn it!'_ Nami thought furiously. _'The way this guy is going, if I try and call for help I'm liable to bite my tongue off! I need to find an ope-ACK!'_ Her train of thought was violently derailed as the interloper rammed the staff of his trident into her, blowing Nami's guard wide open and sending her stumbling back.

The intruder capitalized on the opening with another lunge, intent on turning Nami into a living colander. Thankfully, the navigator was able to snap her staff up between the trident's tines. The force of the attack shoved her back a few feet on the lawn as the attacker pressed his advantage with his superior strength.

This turned out to be a mistake, as barely a second into the standoff Nami twisted her grip on the Clima-Tact, breaking it into two pieces and twisting out of the intruder's path. As a result, he stumbled forwards as the resistance before his weapon was lost. Making use of the opening granted to her, Nami snapped the Clima-Tact back together and swung the staff up between the interloper's legs, hoping to finish the fight in a single blow.

The sound of metal clanging against metal dashed Nami's hopes while simultaneously raising the attacker's ire.

"Who the hell wears a _codpiece!?"_ She demanded incredulously as she yanked her Clima-Tact back, making sure to avoid touching the section of metal that had been between the figure's legs.

"It's a fucking _cup,_ you little-!" The intruder's indignant rasp was cut off by the sound of stirring from the cabins at the aft of the ship. Nami grinned triumphantly at the prospect of backup, but was swiftly cowed by the murderous glare her opponent levelled at her.

Seeming to act on pure rage, the intruder swung hard and wide at her with his trident, in a motion not dissimilar to a baseball bat. Nami's reflexes made it easy for her to duck under the wild swing, but she stopped in confusion as the figure continued rotating along with the swing.

' _Why is he- tail.'_ Nami's thoughts faltered and ground to a halt as she caught sight of the thick, meaty appendage connected to the intruder's posterior that she hadn't noticed right until it was inches from her face.

' _Uh-oh.'_

THWACK!

The tail slammed into her like a small-caliber cannonball, launching her into the mast as a result. Lights flashed behind her eyes the second she struck the wood, her thoughts in such disarray that she couldn't even _begin_ to string together a coherent sentence.

Through the haze of pain, Nami was able to make out two things: The first was the intruder's threatening frame ominously marching towards her, trident held at the ready in a reverse grip.

And the second...

" _Alwa... ook for... llow-up..."_

Nami blinked blearily at the voice ringing through her head. "Wha...?" She managed to slur.

Ignoring his victim's pained ramblings, the intruder drew his weapon back as he prepared to perforate Nami once anew...

And promptly snapped his head to one of the ship's doors moments before it creaked open, allowing a groggy four-foot tall bipedal reindeer to step onto the deck.

"Hello?" Chopper yawned as he tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes. "Nami? Robin? Is that-" He cut himself off as his nose twitched slightly before almost instantly snapping awake. "Wait, wha-!?"

THWACK!

"AAAAAAAARGH!" Chopper's statement turned into a scream of panic as a tremendous force slammed into him from out of nowhere, effectively punting him off the deck and over the ocean.

"CHOPPER!"

The intruder didn't spend so much as an instant contemplating the results of his actions, instead rolling backwards with more agility than his frame suggested in order to avoid the rubber fist that shot out of the door at him.

"GET BACK HERE YOU BASTARD!" Luffy roared as he shot out of the cabin, followed swiftly by his crew.

"What the rubber moron said, you- _NAMI!?"_ Sanji stared at the injured Navigator in shock for a second before literally lighting himself on fire in his fury. _"PREPARE TO BURN, ASSHOLE!"_

The intruder ignored the insult being hurled at him, instead bolting for the edge of the ship he'd been trying to escape off of in the first place. Snatching up the net of food he'd dropped and sheathing his trident on his back, the thief then vaulted up and over the railing and down into the waters below.

"Oh no you don't!" Luffy snarled, dashing up to the railing and winding up his arm.

"No!"

"Huh?" He blinked and stared at his navigator as she slowly struggled to her feet. "But Nami!"

"Forget about him! We need to save Chopper!" She ordered, leaning against the mast as she pressed a hand to the back of her head. "If we don't find him fast, he'll drown!"

Luffy briefly glared over his shoulder at the waters before nodding in understanding. "Fine! Come on, let's get him!"

"Yohoho! Right behind you captain!"

And with that, Brook and Luffy leapt over the opposite side of the ship after Chopper.

A few seconds later...

"AAAH! HELP! I'M SINKING!"

"MY LUNGS ARE FILLING WITH WATER! EVEN THOUGH I DON'T HAVE ANY! YOHOH- _BLUB!"_

"GOD DAMNIT YOU IDIOTS!"

And so the night devolved into a hasty series of water rescues.

But for all the frantic commotion, none of the Straw Hats were able to forget the about the intruder that had violated the sanctity of their home.

No more than said violator could forget them.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Ow! Alright Chopper, that's tight enough!" Nami winced as she half-heartedly swatted the reindeer's hoof away from the bandage he was tying around her head. "Geeze, my skull is throbbing, not about to fall to pieces..."

Chopper winced slightly as he hastily loosened the bandage a bit. "Sorry about that. I'm not really at my best."

Nami eyed the doctor worryingly, noting how he seemed to be swaying _ever_ so slightly on his hooves. "Is it anything serious?"

"Eh... not really, just... well..." Chopper scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Last night when I... 'fell in', I panicked and tried changing forms to get out and... well... ever get water up your nose and then have a hard time getting it out?"

"Yeah?"

"Changing your entire body's musculature does _not_ help. And seeing how thanks to my Devil Fruit the smell of seawater in my nose always sets my teeth on edge..." Chopper let a shiver run up his body.

"Oh, Chopper..." Nami gave him a pitying look before picking him up and placing him in her lap. "C'mere!"

"Hey, wait wha-!? C-c'mon you bitch, it's not like this'll make me happy or any-ah-ahh..." Chopper's enthusiastic protests died as Nami's fingers worked their way under his hat and behind his ears. "Actually, that feels _really_ good, could you just... ooooh..." The reindeer proceeded to all but melt under her fingers.

The door to the clinic swung open, allowing Sanji to poke his head in. "Oh Nami-swan, I just wanted to let you know I'm done running inve-GRK!" The cook then proceeded to burn over half his cigarette at once as he hissed furiously at the sight of Chopper relaxing on Nami's lap.

"Something wrong, Sanji?" Nami asked, her brow creased in slight worry. Her hands continued to scratch behind Chopper's ears, the reindeer moaning under the attention.

"Nothing…" Sanji ground out, taking an angry huff of the cigarette. "Just… letting you know that I'm done running inventory on our food stores. You should probably get come in to the kitchen so I can tell everyone." And with that, Sanji spun stiffly on his heel and marched out, practically slamming the door behind him.

"Weird…" Nami muttered. "So, anyway, Chopper, how's my head looking?"

"Aww... " Chopper whined as he Nami stopped scratching his head. "Oh! Uh, I mean…" Blushing under his fur, Chopper jumped to his feet and dashed over to grab his clipboard. "Well, it's all good news. You don't have a concussion, so the headache should be gone tomorrow."

"Did you say concussions?" Luffy asked, peeking his head into the clinic. "Ah, you don't have to worry about those! Grandpa said that they don't have any lasting effects."

Nami and Chopper sent confused looks at each other. "They… don't?" Nami asked quizzically.

"They don't what?" Luffy replied, tilting his head in confusion.

Nami, seeing where this was going, swiftly clamped her hand over Chopper's mouth before he could respond. "Oh, nothing, nothing. Just... give us a second?"

"Sure!" And with that, the rubber man was gone.

Nami waited a few seconds before letting Chopper go. "Did Luffy ever tell you how young he was when he ate the Gum-Gum Fruit?"

"I don't think that Garp's 'love' really cared whether he was rubber or not..." Chopper muttered.

Nami flinched sympathetically. "Yeah... trick him into taking a few tests?"

"Agreed."

And with that, the pair left the clinic, where they were met with the worried looks of their crew.

"Nami and I are fine, no long-term..." Chopper stumbled and shook his head to clear it before grinning meekly. "Eh... no _serious_ long-term damage."

"How are our food stocks looking?" Nami asked Sanji, already pessimistic about the answer..

The gourmet cook sighed heavily as he took a hit from his fresh cigarette. "Yesterday, we had enough food to keep us going for two months, provided _certain individuals_ ," The glare he sent at Luffy was obliviously ignored. "Managed to control themselves. Doubtful, but still, I like to dream. But now, thanks to our 'guest' from last night," He tsked and shook his head. "We have three days' worth of food left. And that's if you like nothing but hardtack and vegetables."

A dull roar of disappointment and incredulity rang out in response.

"This is unacceptable! My stomach will shrivel up into nothing! Even though I haven't had one for years! YOHOHO!"

"That is _so_ not SUPER!"

"I suppose we'll have to make use of our emergency food supplies, won't we?"

"STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT, ROBIN!"

"How'd this even happen!?" Usopp's question in particular drew a lot of attention.

"Long-nose has a point." Zoro grunted darkly. "I can understand dartboard brow not noticing..."

"You're getting anything that goes bad, mosshead."

"But me and Luffy should have noticed him _somehow_ with Haki."

Luffy crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. "Unless this guy had Haki too."

The crew snapped their focus to their captain in shock.

"Come again?" Nami asked.

Luffy cupped his chin in thought. "I don't really remember it all that well, but while we were training, Rayleigh told me about how some people can use their Observation Haki to mess with other people's Observation Haki. He said something about... jamming frequencies or stuff like that? I dunno, it was a lot of big words. But still, it means that whoever did this can use Haki, and pretty good too, which means that he's _definitely_ strong."

Silence reigned over the kitchen.

Luffy blinked and looked at his crew in confusion. "Huh? What's wrong?"

"L-Luffy..." Robin started up hesitantly. "It's just…"

"We're so used to you being a dumbass that you being this serious kind of caught us off guard," Zoro stated bluntly.

"Yes, exactly, thank you." The archaeologist sighed in relief.

Luffy's scowl darkened immensely as he tensed up. "Of course I'm serious! This bastard broke on to our ship, our home, hurt Nami, almost drowned Chopper... and most importantly..." His fingers fiercely dug into his arms.

The crew leaned forwards in grim anticipation.

Luffy suddenly flung his arms upwards. "HE STOLE ALL MY MEAT!" He bellowed furiously.

Silence reigned over the kitchen anew.

Finally, Nami broke the silence by clapping her hands. "Sanji. Zoro."

"I'll take the right side."

"I've got the left."

Luffy looked between his co-heavy-hitters in confusion. "Huh? What are you guys talking about?"

The sound of a door clicking made Luffy look around and blink in confusion. "Hey, why'd everybody leave?"

Zoro and Sanji cracked their knuckles in response.

 **-o-**

Five minutes later, the Straw Hats reassembled.

"Do you have anything you'd like to say to us, Luffy?" Nami asked serenely.

"Yes," Luffy slurred. His face was a vivid mess of bruises, the right side covered in footprints and the left appearing to have been put through a meat grinder. "I'm sorry for putting food over my crew. It'll never happen again."

"Good boy." Nami chirped.

"Moving on from our local bottomless pit's stomach..." Sanji sighed. "Does anyone have any idea on how this jackass snuck up on us like that? I mean, even without Haki, we're miles away from any land, and I didn't see any ships of any sizes while we were saving Chopper."

"There _are_ a myriad of possibilities for covert transportation," Robin mused. "A submarine, perhaps, a small coated ship, or a devil fruit with flight, or-"

"It was a fishman."

Attention turned to Nami at her flat statement.

"Are you sure?" Usopp asked.

Nami nodded slowly, a melancholic expression affixed to her face. "Yes, I'm sure of it. I couldn't make out a lot of details, but he was definitely bigger and stronger than the average human, strong enough to force the lock on the freezer with brute strength alone. He was also using a trident when we were fighting, and fishmen use them almost as naturally as humans use guns and swords. Plus, considering the way he dived off the ship..." She nodded hesitantly. "Yeah, I... _think_ he was a fishman."

Usopp blinked in confusion. "You're not sure?"

"Well..." Nami groaned as she marched over to a table and fell into a chair, leaning on her elbows as she clutched the back of her head. "I... last night, he gave me _this_ by hitting me with a tail. His tail. But... I've never seen a fishman with a tail, mermen's tails don't split when they get older like mermaids, and that was definitely a guy, so it _had_ to be a fishman, but... he could have been a Zoan-Type, but I've never heard of a fish-Zoan and he wouldn't be able to swim, so... _so..._ URGH!" Nami shook her head furiously. "I don't know, alright!? I-I just don't..."

A hand falling on her shoulder caused her to snap her head up, fully intent on chewing the owner out. Then she saw that it belonged to a legitimately concerned Luffy and her bluster left her completely. After a second of gaping, searching for something to say, Nami ultimately settled on sighing and thumping her forehead on the table. "I... I don't know how to explain it, Luffy. I don't even know what _it_ is to begin with. Just... something's been bothering me, since last night and..." Nami groaned in despair. "I just don't know..."

"Nami…" Sanji started, reaching out to comfort her, only to have his shoulder caught up in Zoro's iron grip.

"C'mon," the swordsman stated. "Let's give her some space."

The navigator distantly heard the others leave, Sanji and Franky discussing something or other about the fridge. Allowing herself to relax ever so little, Nami slowly exhaled through her nose, her eyes drifting shut.

" _Alwa... ook for... llow-up..."_

Nami grit her teeth as she clenched her eyes shut even tighter. "What was that?" she growled under her breath as she racked her brain. "What the hell does it _mean?"_

In the end, she had as many answers as she started with, which only served to exasperate her even further.

 **-o-**

It was a relatively subdued crew that populated the Thousand Sunny's deck. For about five minutes before Brook tried serenading Robin with a song that had nothing to do with any form of clothing worn beneath- or at- the waist.

He managed to get three lyrics into _"Ode to a Corset"_ before Nami wound up lodging her Clima-Tact in his ribcage. That set Sanji a-twitter around Nami again, which earned a comment from Zoro, which incited an impromptu duel between the two... Within about an hour, Luffy and Usopp were laughing their asses off as they tried to help Chopper regain his balance without much success, Brook was demonstrating his brand of swordsmanship to Zoro with his sheathed cane, and Sanji and Robin were running ideas for upgrades to the Sunny by Franky.

Nami smiled slightly as she looked down on the scene from the crow's nest. It was nice to have _some_ form of familiarity on hand.

She then shook her head and stepped back from the window. "Alright, back to it..." And with that, she snapped her Clima-Tact out and started swinging it around. She swiftly and systematically ran through multiple katas with her weapon, twirling it around her body and arms, spinning as though the staff were an extension of her body. Her feet twisted and danced around the gymnasium as she spun her body along with the twirls of her staff.

After about a minute, Nami fell into one of the oldest katas she could remember. Spin to the left, jab with her staff, backstep, spin to the right, overhead swing, duck-

Nami flinched. She didn't know why... but she did, her body doubling over out of instinct.

" _Alwa... ook for... llow-up..."_

Nami panted heavily as she attempted to process what had just occurred. "I..." Nami blinked numbly. "What?" She swiftly racked her brain for the last time she'd employed that kata... and felt her blood run cold when she recalled the answer.

"HEY! NAMI!"

The navigator jumped in shock as Luffy's voice rang throughout the crow's nest. Still acting on instinct, she swung her Clima-Tact with the lightning section activated right into his face. Luckily, (or unluckily, depending on your perspective) being made of rubber, he didn't even flinch.

"What?" She growled, blushing furiously at the fact that the _loudest_ member of the crew had just snuck up on her.

"I think I saw an island!" Luffy exclaimed, grinning his trademark grin and cheerfully oblivious to the fact that she had just attacked him.

"LAND HO!" Usopp bellowed from below.

"I _definitely_ saw an island!" Luffy reaffirmed.

Nami glanced at her log pose and barely restrained a sigh of frustration when she confirmed that, once again, the needle was pointing off the _side_ of the Sunny. Honestly, she was starting to get sick and tired of the New World's currents, this was the third time that week!

After taking stock of the clouds drifting along outside and formulating a plan, she addressed Luffy. "Turn the ship to a 325 degree bearing and start furling the sails. And for God's sake, leave the topsails up this time!" At Luffy's blank stare, she sighed and ran a hand down her face. "Put the island next to Sunny's head and bring in all the sails except for the one with our flag on it."

Luffy tilted his head in confusion. "But doesn't more sails mean more speed?" The murderous glare he got in response was answer enough. "Uh..." He promptly shot out of the crow's nest, relaying her orders to her- _his!_ His crew.

Nami sighed and shook her head, half in amusement, half in exasperation, as she marched towards the window that faced the prow of the head. One day, she was going to sit her captain down and force every nautical term into his head that she could manage.

Not that decade, though. Or even that century, for that matter. Noooo, she'd wait until they were all ancient and retired. _Then_ she'd browbeat the King of the Pirates until his brain was black, blue and bloody.

Dismissing her cathartic thoughts of the future, Nami instead picked up one of the spyglasses she'd stashed up here for lookout duty and took a nice long look at the Sunny's destination.

All in all, it was a nice location: A relatively large island, dense with foliage. The terrain was a bit rough, what with more than a few cliffs here and there, but it was peppered with agricultural plantations nonetheless. A rice paddy here, a grove of trees here, all in all very nice.

Even the ring of wrecked ships near what appeared to be the port of the central town wasn't too offputting, after seeing Water 7.

The fact that they all seemed picked clean and had Jolly Rogers on what remained of their masts _was_ a little worrying though.

"Welcome to the New World..." Nami sighed as she lowered the spyglass, scrutinizing what little of the island there was to see with her bare eyes. When all was said and done, it seemed... quaint. Nice. Dare she say... beautiful?

" _Got... mit, it... ell of... iew."_

Nami barely resisted the urge to bang her head against the window. "Where the hell is this all coming from?!" she yelled at no one in particular. She made to turn around and march away... then froze and blinked at her reflection.

Slowly, contemplatively, Nami raised her hand and brushed her cheek. She stared at the moisture on her finger in shock. "What the...?" She blinked in confusion. "Wh... why am I crying?"

Before Nami could contemplate the sheer insanity of her situation any longer, she was drawn out of her musings by the sounds of the crew below deck. As she hastily made her way out of the crow's nest, the thoughts were postponed for a later date.

Postponed, but not forgotten.

 **-o-**

"Just to be clear..." Usopp swallowed nervously as he looked over the array of mutilated ships that surrounded the Sunny. "I'm not the only one getting flashbacks to the Rainbow Mist, right?"

"Only tangentially, Usopp," Robin mused as she analyzed the vessels. "While the ships in the Mist ranged from ancient to contemporary, these all appear relatively recent. I'd estimate that they were sunk in the last five years."

"And they were sunk SUPER brutally, too," Franky noted as he pushed up his glasses, "See that one?" He pointed out one of the ships that had snapped in half. "Look familiar to you guys?"

Usopp swallowed uncomfortably at the image. "Just like the Merry... Don't tell me, its keel?"

Franky nodded gravely in agreement. "Yeah, though in that ship's case, I think it was an underwater explosion that broke it rather than an impact like with the Merry. You can see where the explosion left little tears all along the bottom."

"You mean like on that one over there?" Zoro pointed out another ship on the other side of the Sunny.

Franky glanced over at it before doubletaking. "Uh oh..." He grit out.

"D-d-don't tell me..." Brook chattered in horror. "All these ships were-!?"

"Sunk by the same thing?" Sanji sighed out a cloud of smoke. "Afraid so."

"SCARY!" Chopper, Usopp and Brook yelped as they clumped together.

"Oh calm down!" Nami snarled at them in aggravation as she scanned the water. "We're ten times stronger than these guys were! Now be quiet, I need to concentrate. The currents these things are making are insane."

"Maybe we can help!"

"Huh?" Nami blinked in surprise at the sudden voice.

"Down here!"

Attention shifted down to the waterline, where a man in a rowboat was waving at them.

"Hello!" He greeted them. "Pirates, right? What's your business here?"

"We wanna buy some meat!" Luffy called down before Nami shoved him out of the way.

"Along with a few other supplies!" She concurred. "A fishman robbed us last night and stole all our food!"

The man's pleasant expression morphed into one of worry and fear. "Wait, he-? Oh, _that's_ not good..." He muttered to himself as he started scanning the water. "Okay, you guys are _really_ going to want to follow me! And fast, before he comes back to finish the job!" And with that, the man took up his oars and started paddling through the water with surprising speed.

The crew glanced at one another in confusion. "Nami?" Sanji questioned.

The navigator shrugged helplessly. "He knows these waters better than I do. Do you guys _really_ want to go round two with that guy? _Don't!"_ She snapped furiously. "Answer that. Reign in the sails and follow him closely."

And so the Thousand Sunny followed the man through the wooden reef and into an open area around the docks proper. Once they were clear of the wrecks, the man in the rowboat whistled loudly, drawing attention of a bunch of men milling about the docks. "THEY'RE GOOD!" He shouted. "RAISE THE WALL!"

Usopp blinked in confusion. "Wait, raise the wha-?"

His question was cut off by the sound of a bell ringing out. All along the perimeter of the open area, a multitude of poles started to rise up and out of the water. Strung between the poles were large nets woven out of steel cables. Once the net was raised, a multitude of rowboats travelled out into the bay.

"It's a trap!" Usopp yelped, scrambling for his Kabuto.

"Well, if it's a fight they want..." Luffy chuckled as he cracked his knuckles.

"WAIT!"

The crew's actions were stopped by a loud voice calling out to them. In one of the larger rowboats, a large man was standing up and waving at them vigorously. A relatively middle-aged man, he was the spitting image of a stereotypical pirate: His wrinkly face framed by long salt-and-pepper dreadlocks that hung down from under his tricorn, he was dressed in a long black justacorps with red epaulettes, and to wrap it all up he had a gold tooth glinting in his mouth.

"I apologize, mateys! T'was our first time usin' our seawall, and me local hearties got a wee bit overenthusiastic! We dinnae mean ta scare ya like that!" The man apologized profusely.

"Are you a pirate?" Luffy asked eagerly.

The man threw his head back in an exaggerated manner and laughed enthusiastically. "HAR HAR HAR! Ah, no me matey, I be no salty sea dog like you! Me name is Polly! I be the mayor of this here town of Kayaku, a humble respite for pirates and buccaneers of all walks of life! But quite honestly, after spending so long wrangling these bilgerats, I might as well _be_ one! HAR HAR HAR HAR!" This time, his laughter was heartily accompanied by the rest of the men in the other rowboats.

Nami blinked in surprise. "You mean this place is a pirate town?"

"At least it looks better than Mock Town..." Zoro muttered.

"Shishishishi!" Luffy chuckled. "I like this guy! He's funny!" He raised his voice as he addressed the mayor. "It's nice to meet you, I'm-!"

"Oh, no need to introduce yourself lad! We already know who you are!" Mayor Polly's grin widened as he drew a sheaf of papers out of his coat, waving them in the air. "The Straw Hat Pirates, composed of 'Straw Hat' Monkey D. Luffy, 'Pirate Hunter' Roronoa Zoro, 'Cat Burglar' Nami, 'Sniper King', 'Black Leg' Sanji, 'Cotton Candy Lover' Tony Tony Chopper-"

"Next time we get attacked by a marine ship, can I handle them on my own? I _really_ want to have a talk with their captain, just a quick one!"

"Ah, Zoan type. Right, marines are idjits. Anyways, 'Demon Child' Nico Robin, 'Cyborg' Franky, and 'Humming' Brook." Polly's grin practically split his face. "Quite the crew you've got here, Captain Luffy! Highly impressive!"

Zoro cocked an eyebrow as he looked the man over. "You looking to get rich quick?"

"HAR HAR HAR!" Polly burst out laughing. "Not in the slightest, me bucko! You'll find no love for the World Government here in Kayaku! We might not go out to sea, but piracy's been in our blood for several generations! We wouldn't betray fellow adventurers for something as measly as a pile of doubloons! Nay, lad, so long as you don't try and pillage us..." Polly's grin widened further as he pulled his coat open slightly, revealing the cutlasses strapped to his side and the flintlocks over his chest. "We won't pillage you!"

Luffy's chuckling intensified. "I _really_ like this guy!"

Nami, meanwhile, focused on the situation at hand. "Then would you mind telling us what's up with that sea wall? _And_ the wrecked ships for that matter."

Before Polly could respond, the man who'd been their guide spoke up. "He already stole all their food last night, sir! I didn't see him, but you know how slippery he is!"

Mayor Polly's grin fell into a scowl as he crossed his arms and bowed his head. "Is that so, eh? Tch. Well then, lass, it would seem you've already had the misfortune of meeting the scurvy weevil who's responsible for our wall in the first place!"

Nami blinked in shock. "Wait, you don't mean-!?"

"Aye, lass, I do..." The Mayor nodded morosely. "Once you've docked yer ship, come with me ta town hall. I'll tell you everything you need to know..." He looked up, his eyes glinting viciously. "About the Scourge of the Sea."

 **-o-**

Luffy snickered as he watched a couple of kids run around outside a window. "This seems like a pretty fun place!"

"Yeah..." Nami concurred, smiling at the pure... _normalness_ of it all. "It looks... peaceful."

The two had followed the mayor into the town hall, while the rest of the crew waited outside and took in the sights.

"Aye, that it is, me hearties, that it is." Mayor Polly chuckled as he poured a bottle of red liquid into an old goblet of gold. "Would either of ye care for some fine, well-aged rum?" He shrugged at their dismissals before draining it. "Suit yerself. Anyways, yes, Kayaku is a free town. We were founded almost a century ago by a crew o' retired pirates and their families and we just... grew from there. We do well on our own, but we pride ourselves on harborin' any and all true warriors o' the sea like you." His mood darkened substantially. "Or at least, we did..."

"Until five years ago when the 'Scourge' came, right?" Nami asked.

Polly blinked in surprise. "What? How did you-?" He cut himself off as he shook his head. "Ah, it doesn't matter. Anyways, yes: The Scourge o' the Seas. That's the name we gave that fish-faced cur who attacked ye last night. He's been a pain in our poopdecks for the past five years, when he arrived. We dunno who he is or why he does what he does. All we _do_ know is that he's got a damned grudge against all pirates. That graveyard ye passed through? His doin' entirely. He savages the keels of any and all vessels flyin' the Jolly Roger before comin' on board and massacring the crew somethin' fierce. He rarely even loots anything either, just kills 'em and leaves, like a damned plague."

"And he _only_ targets pirates?" Nami clarified.

Polly nodded grimly. "Indeed, lass. Merchant ships pass by from time to time without worry, and our own fishing vessels venture out as well, but neither of them have faced his wrath without warnin'. Worst that happens is that some unlucky salt and his friends catches him in a net and he flips the boat before pounding the tar out of them. They're bruised, aye, but alive."

"That's... actually a pretty standard fishman thing." Nami noted.

"Aye lass, I know..." Polly nodded before sighing. "But either way, the fact of the matter is that whenever the Scourge catches sight of a pirate, he makes them regret ever bein' born. And quite frankly, that's rather annoyin' to us. Yer kind might not be our main trade, but we'd certainly appreciate havin' the company! It's why we put that there seawall in place. First time we've used it, but honestly? I doubt it'll slow the bugger down much. Should give yer ship _some_ security though."

"So you can wine and dine them and get ahold of their 'doubloons'?" The navigator asked innocently.

 _This_ incited a flurry of panicked coughing from Polly. "I-I-I, t-that is to say, we... uh... arrr, shiver me timbers..." He ultimately groaned in defeat before slumping into his chair. "Anyways, that's neither here nor there. What _is_ here is what I'm askin' of ya: to help catch this fishy sea lubber and put a stop to his destruction!"

Luffy blinked in confusion. "Huh? Why us? Why not ask the marines or something?"

The question incited a burst of laughter from Polly, though it was definitely derisive. "The marines!? Lad, I'll let you in on a little secret o' this here town: it's _secret!_ Or at least, we try our hardest to keep it that way! Me an' me closest buckos keep a firm hold o' all Eternal Poses leadin' to this place, and we make special care to ensure that word don't spread around about us too much. And why do we do that? Easy! _The marines!_ See lad, from time to time, pirates come back here to retire, settle down with families and what not, and get outta the business. If the marines ever heard about all the bounties we got growin old here, they'd arrest us all for harborin' fugitives from the law! And that was two years ago! Now? With that rabid _mutt_ Sakazuki sittin' at the head o' things? HA! Why, he'd come here in person an' burn us all alive, man, woman and child alike, for havin' the _blood_ o' pirates runnin' through our veins! Nay lad, the marines'd be of no use here."

"And I'm guessing you can't go to the Emperors because they cost too much, huh?" Nami queried.

Polly nodded gravely and pointed at her. "Got it in one, lass. We cannae pay the taxes o' Big Mom or Kaido, Blackbeard's a scurvy rat, through and through, and while Shanks might be a decent lad, he and his crew are too deep in the New World for us to reach. As it is, we're on our own."

"But why us?" Nami asked in confusion.

"Why _not_ you?" Mayor Polly scoffed. "Yer the Straw Hat Pirates, by Whitebeard's glorious mustache, may he rest in peace! Ye took on those bilgerats in Baroque Works - oh don't look so surprised, we all know the only true word on the sea is that of mouth - ye took on the World Government and levelled Enies Lobby, and ye took on the New Fishman Pirates! Got a few new residents who want ta say thanks, by the way. But anyways, the point is that ye have a reputation that precedes ya, a good one. We'd be most obliged if ye lent us a hand and took care of the Scourge! I'd provide all the supplies ye'd need too!"

Luffy tilted his head in thought for a moment before grinning eagerly. "Why not? Pirates help other pirates all the time! Plus, it sounds like it could be fun!"

Nami, on the other hand, seemed rather reluctant, her eyes narrowed in concentration as thoughts ran through her head.

Noticing her expression, Polly made a show of sighing and leaning back in his seat. "We're not real pirates, we're much obliged either way. Still though, ye need not feel guilty should ye suddenly decide otherwise. I'll just have me hearties take _these_ with them when they next go out on a shopping trip." He drew a piece of paper out of his coat and proffered it.

Nami glanced over it curiously. "Wanted, dead or alive, The Scourge of the Seas. Reward... _ONE HUNDRED MILLION BERRIES!?"_ She screeched in shock, ripping the paper out of Polly's hands.

Polly grinned triumphantly at the reaction. "Aye, lass! As I said, the Scourge don't take much from the ships he sinks, so we've made a bit of a trust fund out o' both the dead men's booty and the gold we make sellin' fixins we loot of their ships and corpses! Helps keep us afloat, ye see. We'll pay the bounty to whosoever brings us the Scourge. Whether it be ye or someone-"

Nami suddenly rushed to the window, ripped it open and jammed her head out. "FRANKY! GO COMMANDEER THREE FISHING BOATS AS FAST AS YOU CAN!" She bellowed. "THE REST OF YOU GATHER UP EVERY FISHING NET, ROD, HOOK, LINE AND SINKER YOU CAN CARRY! WE'RE GOING _BOUNTY-HUNTING!"_

"HAR HAR HAR HAR!" Polly bellowed happily. "Glad to hear it, lass! I await yer swift and victorious return!"

"Shishishishi!" Luffy snickered. "Don't worry, we'll get him! Oh, ah... but now that I think about it..." He tilted his head in confusion. "Where are we supposed to find this guy in the first place?"

"Well..." Polly scratched at his chin in thought. "We don't have a real location of his pinned down... but there is _one_ area where fishermen tend ta' run into him more often than not. Could be close ta where he lives. It's a small, out of the way area. More than a few crags and rock shelves. Real maze o' water and stone. Perfect place for a fishman ta lay low in."

Luffy's grin widened as he leaned in eagerly. "What's it called?"

 **-o-**

"Jigsaw Bay, huh?" Sanji muttered as he warily eyed the surroundings. "Appropriate."

And indeed, it was. The waters of the bay were a mess of spikes and spurs jutting out of the water, alongside random columns jutting out of the waves and shelves carved at seemingly random into the coast itself. The waves were constantly pounding the rock walls, sending up massive gouts of spray, to the annoyance of a pack of sea lions sunning on a flat outcropping. A covering of grass with the occasional bush could be seen at the top of the rocks away from the shoreline proper.

All in all, it looked like some great and frustrated god had gotten frustrated halfway through putting the place together and taken a fist to it, resulting in a shattered, destitute stretch of coast.

Hell for ships... but heaven for an appropriately savvy fishman.

"Quit admiring the scenery and help me out, crap-cook." Zoro scowled.

"Fishing, fishing, gonna catch me a nice big _fishman!"_ Luffy cackled eagerly as he flung a net out into the water.

"Not my fault you couldn't appreciate something beautiful if it walked up to you and hit you in the face," Sanji retorted. "I should know, I see the proof every day. Besides, I want to at least _try_ and see this guy coming."

Zoro quirked an eyebrow at the cook. "You sound upset."

Sanji whirled on Zoro, his eyes ablaze. "Upset? Oh, no, I'm not upset. That fish bastard hurt Nami and stole our food. I am _fucking pissed!_ " The last two words were punctuated by a burst of flame.

"Hey, cool it, dartboard!" Zoro snapped as the flames licked over the boat. "Do you want us to sink!?"

"SCREW YOU, MOSSHEAD! I'LL STAY MOTIVATED UNTIL WE CATCH THIS BASTARD!"

"Then I'll calm you down _myself!"_

"I think Sanji is upset," Robin noted as she observed the ongoing brawl from another boat, glancing up from her book.

"Y'think?" Franky grumbled as he cast out the net. "Y'know, I know you drown _super_ easy, but it'd be even _more_ super helpful if you guys would actually _do_ something."

"I am doing something, dear Franky!" Brook retorted, strumming his shark-shaped guitar. "I'm providing moral support with my song! _Oh, fishing for fish and-"_

"I'm keeping the net in place," Robin added. Franky glanced over to the net, and sure enough, there were several of Robin's arms holding the net taut.

"Mmph... Still cheating, you know..." Franky pouted.

"Hmm..." Brook paused in his playing as a thought struck him. "I believe I require inspiration for further lyrics. Robin my dear-"

"Would you prefer for me to use your arm or your leg as bait, Brook?"

"..."

"STOP CONSIDERING IT, DUMBASS!"

"Well, looks like they're having fun." Chopper observed as he looked over his crewmates' vessels, reaffirming his grip on the fishing rod he was clutching.

"Yeah, while on the _other_ hand..." Usopp muttered as he glanced over his shoulder... only for a metal rod to bounce off his forehead. "OUCH!"

"If you've got time to complain, you've got time to fish." Nami sighed as she leaned back, lounging over the prow of the small dinghy they were occupying, attempting to maximize the amount of skin the sunlight touched as she repositioned her sunglasses.

Usopp fumed as he nursed the minute lump on his skull. "You're the one who's so gung-ho about catching this guy. I mean, I want him too, obviously, but why aren't you doing more to help?"

Nami slowly turned her head to give the sniper a flat glare over the top of her sunglasses. "I realize we've gotten stronger over the last two years, but be honest: Do you _really_ want us to be the ones to catch the homicidal fishman, instead of them?" She nodded her head at the boats containing their more combat-oriented comrades.

Usopp stared at them for a moment before hastily snapping his eyes back to his floater. "You are a great and wise leader, Nami."

"And don't you forget it." She smirked as she pushed her sunglasses back up onto her nose.

Usopp rolled his eyes before returning to his fishing. "So... Chopper, you ever fish before? Back on Drum Island I mean."

Chopper shook his head in disappointment. "Nope. Never got the chance. I was always studying with Doctorine. Most of my time was spent either up in Drum Castle or in her old house."

"Well don't you worry, Chopper! I'll teach you what I know!" Usopp grinned as he jabbed a thumb at himself. "Amongst my many talents is a grand specialty for fishing! In fact, I once caught a massive horned shark, ten times as big as the one we caught after we got the Sunny!"

Nami wasn't able to restrain her scoff as she rolled her eyes.

Usopp glanced over his shoulder at her before smirking victoriously. "Hey Nami... Remember those huge blue spikes I got Franky to mount in the Dining Hall?"

The navigator blinked in confusion before jerking upright as realization hit her. "You're _not_ serious!"

Usopp was all but cackling by this point. "The Boin Archipelago brings in creatures of all shapes and sizes! And none of them could withstand... THE GREAT USOPP!"

"WOW USOPP, YOU'RE SO COOL!" Chopper squealed excitedly.

Nami cocked her eyebrow as she looked him up and down. "Never thought I'd admit this, but... nice work, Usopp. I'm impressed."

The sniper beamed as he puffed his chest out with pride. "Heh! It's about time you guys acknowledged the awesomeness of the GREAT and POWERFUL Usopp. Now, allow me to regale you with the tale of how I felled the mighty beast! It all happened about a year ago, while I was..."

Nami slowly tuned out the boisterous sniper as she relaxed once more, instead returning to her previous activity.

Half of her attention had been focused on her sunbathing, yes... but the rest was spent analyzing her surroundings. Specifically, the layout of the bay. Something about it was... familiar. Sure, the coastline _appeared_ unique, but there was just something... something _nagging_ her about it. It was right on the tip of her tongue. As familiar as the back of her hand, yet as foreign, alien and inconceivable as the inner workings of Zoro's mind.

It was _infuriating._ Despite raking through every map she'd memorized over her lifetime, she just couldn't begin to conceive of where she'd seen it. And how could she have in the first place?! Calm as it might be, the Island was in the _New World._ As good as another planet to the rest of the Blues, and even Paradise itself! The mere concept of knowing was... inconceivable.

And yet... that outcropping, the shape of that part of the shore... she'd seen it, she _knew_ it. But for all her skills, her experience...

" _No... bad f... little... at li... ou."_

Nami's fingers cracked the edge of the dinghy as she dug into it. _'Why!? Why goddamnit!? Who the hell_ is _that!? Why can't I remember, damn it all!?"_

But almost as swiftly as her mood had dropped, she was yanked out of it. Specifically, she was yanked out of it by Chopper giving out a cry of surprise.

"I got a bite!"

Nami sat up slightly and caught sight of the ship's doctor struggling as something yanked hard against his line, all but yanking it out of his hooves.

"Yeah, go Chopper!" Usopp whooped as he positioned himself behind Chopper, ready to help at any time. "Now just reel her in and tonight we'll feast!"

Nami rolled her eyes slightly at the pair's antics, but couldn't help but lean up in slight interest at the amount of effort the reindeer was exerting. Her eyebrows practically shot up to her hairline as he shifted to Kung Fu Point.

"This thing is _huge!"_ Chopper grunted as he yanked on the rod.

"Forget us, this thing'll feed the whole crew once Sanji's through with it!" Usopp cheered.

By this point, Nami was grinning as she sat up and stooped behind the pair, watching with excitement. Bit by bit, the line was coming closer, and closer, and _closer,_ until finally...

"GOT IT!" Chopper cheered as he gave the line a final yank.

The water in front of the trio erupted outwards as _something_ broke the surface of the ocean, dousing them all and blinding them in the spray.

Nami sputtered and spat as she attempted to clear her eyes... and froze in abject horror.

A silhouette, shadowed by the sun, half of his massive frame sticking out of the water. One massive hand was holding onto the edge of the boat, while the other was gingerly pinching a fishing hook.

Nami's breathing sped up furiously as she slowly inched her hand towards her Clima-Tact, an action that Usopp was imitating as he reached for his Kabuto.

Chopper reacted the swiftest of them all, breaking out in a straight up panic. "HE-GRK!" The reindeer's terrified scream morphed into a choked gargle as the figure's hand shot out and grabbed him by the throat.

"CHOPPER!" Usopp and Nami hollered simultaneously, grabbing his backpack... right as the fishman dove under the waves anew.

The Straw Hat's attention snapped to the third ship in their miniature armada when it suddenly capsized in a spray of water, dumping their friends into the sea.

Barely even a second passed before Luffy was on his feet with both his arms deep in the water, his face the picture of outrage.

"GET BACK HERE YOU BASTARD!" He roared.

Beneath the waves, Nami was fighting to hold her breath as she clutched Chopper's bag for dear life, unwilling to even conceptualize the thought of letting go. The saltwater all but _burned_ as it was shot into her eyes at an unbearable velocity, but still, she fought to hold on. She fought and she fought...

Until her trajectory suddenly swerved, her head impacting with something harder than she thought possible...

And all went black.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The first thing Nami took notice of as she slowly regained consciousness was the smell. Salt and water with a dank overtone of moss and seaweed invaded her sinuses, prompting to scrunch up her nose and groan.

The _second_ thing she noticed was _pain,_ enough to cause her to hiss in shock as it made its presence known _._ Specifically, the pain in question was a rampant throbbing ache behind the back of her skull, almost _exactly_ where she'd hit her head before. Finally finding motivation to put her motor functions to action, the navigator painstakingly worked her way up into a sitting position and gingerly brought a hand to the back of her head, wincing at the wet _and_ warm liquid her fingers came into contact with.

"Damn it..." She muttered under her breath in exasperation.

"Nami, you're up!"

"Wh...?" Nami blinked blearily, working out the salt crusted over her eyes. "Chopper...?"

"I'm here, I'm here!" The reindeer reassured her as he darted to her side, fussing over her nervously. "How do you feel? Any nausea? Fatigue? Do you hear any ringing?"

"I... ah, no, no..." Nami reassured him wearily, flexing her limbs painfully and feeling out the myriad of cuts and bruises arrayed over her body. "What... happened?"

"You don't remember!?" Tony squawked in panic.

"Uh..." Nami scrunched her eyes up painfully as she wracked her memory. The last events she could remember splashed over her like a wave of-

SPLASH!

"Gah!" Nami spat and flailed as a _literal_ wave of water hit her from behind, bowling her over onto the rough stone floor. "What the heck!?" She demanded as she crawled her way away from the source of the water, and blinked as she finally got a look at her surroundings.

It was a relatively small coastal cave, carved out of stone by centuries after centuries of water working away at the underside of a cliff. The trio were situated on the edge of a pool of water that most likely led to the ocean proper. A tunnel led away from the pool and deeper into the rocky mass. Luminescent moss and various aquatic flora coated the walls of the cave, providing dim, inconsistent illumination for the navigator, the doctor and-

"Usopp!" Nami yelped, scrambling towards the downed sniper who was laying flat on his back. "Is he alright?" She asked Chopper nervously.

"I-I think so..." Chopper offered nervously as he knelt by his friend's side, looking his skull over. "I just woke up a minute ago and was checking you two over. You don't appear to have any permanent injuries, as far as I can tell. Sorry for not bandaging your head, but the seawater ruined my gauze. Still, with all the saltwater, it's doubtful that it'll become infected. I... sorry, I... can't tell you... urgh..." The reindeer shook his head, obviously dizzy.

"Okay, different question: Are _you_ alright?" Nami looked at him with concern.

Chopper shook his head again, this time bringing a hoof up to his nose and exhaling loudly. "No, I'm- _snort!-_ not. That trip through the- _snrk!-_ ocean..."

"More water up your nose, huh?" Nami winced sympathetically.

"It's worse than- _snort!-_ last time. I think it's in my _sinuses."_ He whined. "And the salt in this cave doesn't help either. I can't smell anything..."

Before Nami could respond to that, she was interrupted by Usopp groaning and shifting beneath them.

"Usopp!" Chopper yelped, looking the long-nosed over. "How do you feel? Nausea? Dizziness?"

"I- _ouch!"_ Usopp flinched as he tried to touch his temple. "Does my head feeling like it's been caved in count?"

"Considering how we all got our heads cracked against the rocks by that fishman asshole who grabbed us?" Nami shook her head. "I think that's accounted for."

"Then yeah, other than that, I think I'm good." Usopp dragged himself to his feet, aided by Chopper and Nami. He looked around the cave uneasily. "Where... are we?"

Nami shook her head helplessly. "I _think_ we might be in a cave system under one of the island's cliffs. It's most likely that 'Scourge' guy's home."

Usopp swallowed nervously. "That's... not good. Do you think you can get us out of here?"

The navigator shrugged. "With any luck, yes. It won't be easy. These systems can go on for miles. And we need to get out of here fast, because if those waves are anything to go by-!"

SPLASH!

The trio gagged and flinched as they were almost bowled over by yet another wave of seawater.

"The tide's coming in..." She groaned. "Unless we get out fast, things are going to get very wet very fast."

"I'd try smelling for fresh air, but I can't smell anything at all. Sorry..." Chopper groaned.

"Don't worry, Chopper, it's fine, it just means we'll need to do things the old-fashioned way." Nami reassured him shakily.

"So we're going to need to find our way out of a huge system of slowly flooding caves... while a fishman who knows this place like the back of his hand hunts us down." Usopp summarized flatly.

"Er...yes?" Nami's nervous smile became shakier still.

"Do we even have a way to navigate?!" Usopp demanded.

Nami opened her mouth, hesitated, then gained a thoughtful expression. "Maybe." She said with relative confidence.

Apparently, Usopp didn't share her convictions. "We don't stand half a chance..." He hung his head in despair.

"Uh..." Chopper put his hoof up questioningly. "I got a question: why did the Scourge leave us here? Why didn't he just drown us?"

Nami thought it over for a second before grimacing. "Maybe... he wants to hunt us down for sport."

"You've been spending too much time with Robin." Usopp deadpanned.

Nami shivered in agreement. "Tell me about it... Anyways, standing around talking isn't going to get us out of here any sooner. Let's get going. Chopper, seeing how you're the only one of us skilled in close-quarters, could you take the lead?"

The reindeer snapped into an eager salute. "Aye-aye, Nami!"

"Good. Then let's get out of here and make that Scourge regret the day he messed with us."

And with that, they delved into the tunnels. And it was not easy going. The tides flowing through the rocky corridors had worn the stone smooth, and residual moisture left the rocks slick. It was all they could do to not slip and fall every five feet.

Just as bad was the fact that it was a veritable maze, with tunnels branching in all directions, including up and down. One tunnel had even had an opening in the ceiling they could see light through, though ten minutes of shouting produced no response.

About half an hour in the caves had transitioned from smooth and slick to more rough and rocky. On the one hand it made their footing a lot more sure. On the other, the ceiling kept dipping low and jagged rocks continually threatened to slice up their shins. On yet another, the moisture was slowly starting to fade away, which Nami assured them meant that they were no longer in any danger from the rising tide.

Still, all three were heartily sick of the caverns.

"Gah!" Usopp yelped as he almost walked into another pointy stalagmite. "When are we gonna get out of these stupid caves?!"

"Pretty soon..." Nami muttered as she stared up at the ceiling, her hand slowly waving through the air. "Take a left up ahead. There... _should_ be a large chamber through there."

Chopper looked up at her in surprise. "How do you know that?"

The navigator bit her lip and shook her head. "I'll tell you if I'm actually _right._ For now..."

The crewmates turned down the indicated corridor. There, not five feet in front of them, was a large circular cavern, the largest they'd entered yet, lined with corridors all around it.

"Wow, Nami, you were right!" Chopper cried enthusiastically as he accelerated his pace.

Nami allowed herself to smile in relief... before paling in terror, snapping her Clima-Tact out as she leapt forwards. "CHOPPER, DUCK!"

Chopper's reflexes fired at full caliber as the voice of one of the people he trusted most in the world bellowed at him, dropping on his stomach within seconds.

This single action saved his life. Nami's Clima-Tact thrust over his head, slamming into the head of the roughshod trident that had shot out from around the corner of the chamber. The weapon came within inches of giving the reindeer a whole new set of breathing holes when the staff's head struck it, redirecting the head to plant itself in the opposite wall.

Chopper took one look at the would-be instrument of his demise and promptly shrieked in terror, scrambling backwards to rejoin his friends.

Nami panted heavily as she stared at the weapon, watching as the tines were wrenched out of the wall and withdrawn to where its wielder had been hiding. "You can run if you want!" She called out, renewing her grip on her staff. "But you won't be able to get the drop on us again! I've been familiarizing myself with the air currents in these caves! I know the way out, and I'll see you coming from a mile away!"

Silence reigned in the caves for unending seconds, punctuated solely by the heavy breathing of the terrified Strawhats, and the heavy huffing of their hidden attacker.

Finally, a dull thumping sound echoed through the caverns, and the Scourge of the Seas brought himself into sight as he slowly plodded to the center of the cavern and turned to face his prey.

Usopp's breath hitched in terror at the sight of their foe. "Holy crap..."

Chopper shivered as his fur stood on end. "W-what is he?"

The Scourge scoffed, a dull, raspy and painful noise. "Great White fishman." He croaked, his voice bearing all the smoothness of sandpaper.

Nami swallowed heavily as her knuckles turned white on her staff. "In a manner of speaking..." She muttered.

The Scourge was a fishman, alright, only with far more emphasis on the 'fish' part than the 'man'. Where most fishmen appeared to be large humans with the characteristics of marine animals, the Scourge was almost the exact opposite: A ten-foot long great white that had somehow evolved to have webbed hands and feet, but with little else changed. Scattered across his leathery hide was a canvas of scars, covering the full spectrum of shapes, types and sizes.

Great sheets of iron covered his torso, upper arms, and thighs, the plates looking as if they had been yanked off of several sunken ships and pounded into the right shapes with a hammer. The joints were held together by ropes and cables, obviously pried off of a ship's rigging, and underneath was folded canvas providing cushioning. His tail, dragging slightly on the stone behind him, was similarly armored, though the plates seemed thinner.

The oddest part of the armor was the metal grill over his mouth acting as a facemask. In contrast to the battered iron of the rest of the armor, this was steel. Tarnished steel, but steel nonetheless. Similarly baffling was the steel cone covering his snout; it appeared to be cast instead of hammered. Where the grill was attached to his head with an array of make-shift leather straps, the nose cone fit perfectly, like a glove.

Gripped in the Scourge's right hand was his roughly beaten trident, while wrapped around his left forearm was a large, clumsily constructed fishing net, weighted down by an array of off-color stones and chunks of metal that had been woven into it.

Apparently growing tired with the crewmates' stares, the Scourge snorted and took a step back, spreading his arms wide and exposing his chest. "Are you going to keep enjoying the freakshow, or are we going to fight?" He hissed.

Chopper bristled furiously at the taunt, rallying his nerve behind his own stats as a monster. "Cover me." He growled beneath his breath.

Nami glanced at the doctor briefly before nodding minutely.

Taking the permission with gusto, Chopper leapt to his feet and charged at the Scourge, morphing into his Kung Fu Point as he went, Usopp and Nami following him into the cavern. "HAAAA!" He bellowed as he fell on the fishman like a metric ton of bricks.

The Scourge tensed his body, waiting as Chopper came closer and closer. Finally, when he was less than five feet away, he dived, shifting his mass faster than any being his size had the right to move... to the right. As he rolled to his feet, he spun his left arm, unwinding the net from his limb and flinging it at the raging reindeer.

Chopper made to strike the net away with his hoof and promptly gave a cry of distress as he instead reverted to his Brain Point and was engulfed in the mass of the net.

He struggled with the net for a moment, trying and failing to get his hooves to comply and get the damned thing off his body before freezing as the fishman's voice scratched through his ears.

"One down."

That was all the warning he got before the fishman's foot swung out and struck Chopper in the gut, sending him rolling until he slammed against the cavern wall. Chopper gave a token effort to work the net off his body, but ultimately abandoned the tangled mess with a groan of despair.

"CHOPPER!" Usopp yelled in panic, moving to help his friend but screeching to a halt when the Scourge put himself between the two, tapping his trident into his hand warningly. "W-what did you do to him!?"

"It's... seastone..." Chopper managed to bite out before curling up with a moan. "I think I'm gonna be sick..."

"Pirates raid marines, I raid them. Circle of life." The Scourge shrugged in what _appeared_ to be an uncaring manner, his eyes never leaving the pair of humans once.

Usopp grit his teeth furiously as he snapped his hand into the belt at his side. "You bastard..." He whipped his hand to the pouch of his Black Kabuto and took aim at the Scourge's feet. "Eat this! GREEN STAR: BAMBOO JAVELIN-GROVE!"

The Scourge blinked flatly as the seed buried itself between his feet. A second later, he cursed furiously beneath his breath and brought his arms up into a guard _just_ as the ground bulged upwards and erupted with several dozen shoots of razor-sharp bamboo.

Usopp cackled victoriously as the artificially-natural forest covered the fishman entirely. "HA! TAKE THAT YOU DAMN-!"

Usopp's cry was answered in the form of the bamboo exploding outwards from a massive exertion of strength. The bamboo wasn't so much snapped as disintegrated into a hail of fine projectiles, a hail luckily aimed away from the two pirates. The Scourge stomped through the hole he had just made, grunting in frustration as he yanked out a splinter about as long as a nail from his cheek. Not so much as a drop of blood flowed out of the wound, if it could even be called that.

"Cute." He spat venomously, murder obvious in his voice. "My turn."

Before either of the dumbstruck Straw Hats could react, the Scourge crossed the distance between that separated them in three massive, ground-eating strides and grabbed Usopp's arm. He wrenched it out just as Usopp pulled away. The limb pulled taut between them, the fishman turned himself so that he had _just_ enough room to raise his opposite arm and bring his elbow down... directly on top of Usopp's.

The sickening crunch of splintering bone filled the cavern. To everyone's surprise, Usopp didn't cry out in pain, instead gritting his teeth as he wrenched his functional arm out of the fishman's grip, snapped it into his bag and swung a hammer he dug out towards the Scourge's knee. The Scourge snorted at the negligible impact, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and flinging the sniper into one of the cavern walls, letting him slump to the ground clutching his arm.

"That's two..." The fishman grunted darkly. He started to slowly spin his trident in his hand as he turned to face Nami. "All that's left is you and me."

Nami swallowed heavily as she gripped her Clima-Tact. After a few seconds of silence, Nami and the Scourge took a step to the left simultaneously. Then another, and another. Slowly, ever so slowly, the pair circled one another.

Finally, Nami broke their stalemate with a question. "Why?" She breathed the question. "Why did you attack us? What did we do to you?"

The Scourge barked out a laugh, a harsh noise like two gargantuan stones scratching against one another over and over. "You think highly of yourself, girl. I don't know who you are, who your crewmates are, and I don't care. I know enough to know you deserve death. You and everyone like you."

"And what would that be, huh?" Nami demanded with a bit more vigor. "What's our crime!?"

"Your flag." The Scourge stated fiercely, as though it were a curse. "You fly the Jolly Roger, and as such you will pay for it with your lives."

Nami grit her teeth furiously as she glared at the fishman. "So you're killing pirates because... what? Just _because_ they're pirates!?"

"And why wouldn't I!?" The Scourge swung his trident furiously, slashing the air. "You pirates are all the same! You rape! You loot! You pillage! And then you burn down everything you haven't taken! All you touch is _destroyed!_ You leave _nothing_ but _ruin_ and _misery_ wherever you sail!"

 _That_ brought Nami up short, causing her to falter for a moment and fumble with her Clima-Tact as she stared at him in shock and... pity? "What... h-how badly did they hurt you in the past?"

The fishman hesitated slightly at her reaction before clutching the staff of his trident with both hands. "They did enough. Showed me enough. I know how things lie." He turned himself to present his profile, trident's tines directed at Nami. "How _you_ lie."

Nami raised her Clima-Tact defensively as she took a step back, breath hitching in her throat. "W-we're not like that. We're not _all_ like that. There are _good_ p-!"

"There's no such _THING!"_ The Scourge roared, suddenly lunging forwards with a wild thrust. Nami responded by redirecting the blow with a swift strike from her staff before rolling to the side. "Pirates are evil! Just like the marines! Just like the _World Government!"_ The Scourge spat at Nami.

Nami scrambled to her feet as she tried to put some space between her and her assailant. "And what about the townspeople, huh?" She demanded. "Kayaku was founded by pirates! The villagers are their descendants! Do you hate them too? Do you even care about how you're hurting them by killing pirates!?"

"I'm not hurting _them!"_ The Scourge scowled, slamming his trident on the spot Nami had been occupying a moment ago. "I don't care about their pasts _or_ their blood! It doesn't matter where you came from, what your blood is! Human, fishman, hell, even _giant!_ It doesn't matter! Only _actions!"_ The Scourge twisted and spun, raking his trident through the stone and sending up a spray of stone slivers.

Nami raised her arms to shield herself from the debris before spinning to the left, out of the way from the butt of the trident as the Scourge jabbed it at her. "But-!" She slammed her electrified staff down on his arm, to little effect. "They need the pirates!"

"They hell they _do!"_ The fishman grunted as he shot his arm out at her, narrowly missing her head as she swayed to the side with an agility that could be mistaken for Observation Haki. "They have their plantations! I leave them the gold! All I'm doing is a public service! Ridding the world of scum!" He punctuated the word with a swipe of his trident, which Nami barely blocked with her staff. "Like!" Another swipe, this one from the opposing direction that almost knocked the Clima-Tact out of her hands. "YOU!" He charged forwards in an all-out shoulder-tackle, which actually _did_ make contact.

Nami wheezed in pain as she was sent tumbling to the floor. A second or two of her time was spent stunned until she finally managed to get her legs beneath her and dive into a roll away from where she'd been, narrowly avoiding the Scourge's feet as he attempted to crush her underfoot.

Tired of playing defense, she lunged at the massive shark-hybrid, jabbing her staff into a gap in his armor at the base of his spine where his flesh was exposed. She then proceeded to activate the thunder-aspect, sending a jolt of electricity into him.

The Scourge flinched and only just barely caught himself from falling, but was otherwise unharmed as he snarled at her, swinging around in an attempt to backhand her.

Nami ducked under the outstretched arm with a quick sidestep before jabbing her staff again. This time, she aimed upwards, expertly catching the fishman in what little of his throat wasn't covered in armor.

The fishman gagged furiously, but was otherwise unmoved. Instead, he snapped the staff of his trident around Nami's back, trapping her between his weapons, his arms and himself.

Thinking fast, Nami bent her knees _ever_ so slightly before leaping straight up, planting her feet on the fishman's breastplate and _jumping_ off of him, flipping herself over his staff and landing on her feet.

The Scourge snarled in frustration as he lunged forwards, thrusting the staff of his trident forwards and locking his trident with Nami's staff. Nami struggled under the pressure of the fishman's strength before allowing herself to drop and rolling out of the way, narrowly avoiding the staff as it slammed into the ground.

Jumping to her feet, Nami swung her staff at the fishman's head, a blow he met in turn with his own trident. They then retracted their weapons and attempted to again. And again, and again, so on and so forth. From there, the battle evolved from a mere brawl to a duel between two masters of the staff with opposing styles. Nami, small and lithe, ducked, dodged and weaved around his strikes, dancing around the Scourge like wind over the waves, whereas the Scourge employed excessive force and crippling strikes, numbing Nami's arms every time he forced her to only _just_ block him.

Finally, the two broke apart, putting distance between one another as they tried to catch their breaths. The Scourge hissed and spat as he gingerly touched the electrocuted portions of his flesh, whereas Nami massaged the parts of her limbs and body that were swiftly turning blue and purple.

Nami's mind flew a mile a minute as she contemplated the fight. _'Okay, okay, think. The others_ will _find us soon, they've had plenty of time to do it. I just need to hold out a bit more... which is easier said than done, considering how this guy hits like a-!'_

" _Alwa... ook for... llow-up..."_

The only reason Nami didn't grit her teeth was because they were already grinding against one another in frustration. _'Now!? What does that even mean!? Why does it feel like it's right on the tip of my damn tongue! What does this bastard have to do with it, why does this all feel so-!'_ Nami's train of thought derailed when she realized that she wasn't conducting it anymore. _'Feel so... that's... not possible...'_ Nami's breathing accelerated and her thoughts flew until she came upon a way to confirm her suspicions.

Acting fast, Nami leapt forwards at the fishman, an action he responded to with fervor with a strong thrust that Nami spun to the left to avoid. Using the momentum of her spin, she stabbed her staff at the Scourge's head. He countered by ducking and swinging his trident upwards, a wide attack she dodged with a quick backstep. She then dodged the overhead swing with another spin, this time to the left. Nami used the spin to lash out with a massive, diagonal overhead strike. The fishman caught the staff on his left arm's bracer and jabbed his trident at her head with his other hand.

Nami ducked between the jab... and promptly had the air and more than a little bit of saliva knocked out of her as the fishman stepped forwards and thrust his knee into her gut.

Nami spasmed and clenched on the ground in pain as she attempted to roll herself onto her knees, huffing and wheezing as she tried to get her breath back. The back of her mind screamed at her to run, to move before the Scourge finished the job. It screamed something _else_ at her as well.

" _Alwa... ook for ... llow-up... even if... to dodge... keep going..."_

The navigator finally managed to get to her feet and stagger away from the Scourge's counterattack. Or rather, the counterattack that never came.

The Scourge was frozen in place, staring down at his trident in shock and confusion as he slowly swung it around, his thoughts obviously a mile away.

Nami swallowed heavily as she stared at him. _'He's feeling it too, he has to be._ Has _to be. But why!? Why would this fight feel familiar!? Why do we_ both _have experience fighting each other!? Why does it feel like this isn't the first time we've met each other!?'_ Nami groaned beneath her breath as she ground the heel of her palm into her temple. _'Why can't I_ remember, _damn it!?'_

Unfortunately, Nami's ministrations were destroyed on account of the Scourge suddenly bellowing in exasperated rage. "Enough of this _SHIT!"_ He bellowed, winding his trident up and charging Nami like a seatrain.

Acting on instinct, Nami ducked under the wild swing the Scourge unleashed via a massive spin. Unlike the night prior, however, Nami was prepared for the tail swinging at her, which she leapt over with ease.

She was _not_ , however, prepared for the fishman to complete his rotation and _ram_ his fist into her face, catapulting her into the cavern wall.

The air and saliva were knocked out of Nami once anew, accompanied this time by a faint trace of blood. As she coughed and gasped, trying to regain some form of bodily control, the voice rang through her head. Only this time, it wasn't just a disjointed murmur; it was a clarion, clear as the Bell of Shandora.

" _Always look for a..."_

The Scourge slammed his trident into the wall, pinning her neck between the tines of trident. One jagged edge caught the skin, sending a thin trickle of blood down her throat. But the pain was ignored in favor of keeping her head bowed, her hair shadowing her eyes.

The Scourge huffed heavily, exhaustion clear throughout his form. Slowly, he drew his fist back, holding it high over Nami's head. "Any last words, girl?"

Nami's form shook and shuddered with every heaving, unsteady breath she took.

The Scourge shrugged dismissively. "Suit yourself." And with that, he brought his fist down, intent on shattering Nami's skull open...

"Follow-up."

Before freezing at the non-sequitur she uttered, his fist less than half a foot from her face.

Nami slowly raised her head and locked eyes with the fishman, a myriad of emotions storming in her soul.

"Always... look... for a follow-up." She croaked, her voice full of hope, misery and disbelief.

The Scourge stiffened violently, as if he'd been struck by lightning. Slowly, shivers began to wrack his frame as he stared down at the human before him.

"Always... look for a follow-up," Nami repeated, this time with determination. "Because even if you manage to dodge one attack-!"

"Your opponent..." The fishman heaved as he rumbled out the words, unable to _begin_ to believe that he was saying them. "Will... w-will keep going with... another..."

A ragged gasp tore it's way out of Nami's throat as her hand whipped to her mouth. "Raijax?" She squeaked, her eyes brimming with tears.

The fishman's breathing came in short, heavy gasps as he shook violently, his hand spasming open and allowing his trident to fall out of his hands, forgotten as he dropped to his knees before the navigator. "N... nami?" He managed to get out, his voice shuddering with pure, undiluted disbelief.

Nami's only response was a hoarse laugh of joy and relief, unable to properly process what she was feeling.

Trembling under the weight of too many emotions to possibly name and with tears falling down his cheeks, the fishm- _Raijax_ slowly started to raise his hand towards Nami's face, his fingers inches from Nami's face...

CRASH!

When without so much as a hint of warning, one of the cavern's walls burst inwards, showering the two in dust and stone debris, causing both Nami and Raijax to cry out in shock and reel defensively. Raijax hesitantly staggered to his feet, shielding his eyes with his forearm.

That was all he was able to do before the polished rubber sole of a black boot crashed into Raijax's face and sent him slamming into the wall, shattering the rock and causing him to cry out in pain.

From out of the cloud of rock dust, the Straw Hat Pirates' infamous Monster Trio marched into view, flanked by the rest of their crewmates. Each and every last one of them had steel and murder in their eyes, and each began to wind up an attack as they caught sight of Raijax, moaning and groaning as he lay slumped over under a covering of shattered rock. Sanji lifted up his left foot, Zoro slipped into an iaijutsu stance, and Luffy began spinning his arm, winding up for a haki-coated punch.

Behind them Robin, Brook, and Franky were gathering up Usopp and Chopper and performing at least some first aid.

The Trio surged forwards, intent on eviscerating the menace that had harmed their crew...

"STOP!"

Until they were forced to a sudden and violent halt, on account of their navigator shrieking in panic and flinging herself between them and their target, arms spread wide in order to block their progress.

"What the hell-!?"

"Nami-Swan!"

"Nami!"

"Don't even _think_ about it, you _morons!"_ She snapped bitterly.

"Damn it, woman, move!" Zoro snarled as he took a step towards Raijax, fists clenched around the hilts of his sword.

"Not a chance, Roronoa!" Nami stuck her face in the Pirate Hunter's, her expression a rictus of pure outrage. "If you even _attempt_ to touch him, I will _sell_ your swords to the absolute _lowest_ bidder, _DAMN THE CONSEQUENCES!"_

Zoro flinched back from the unexpectedly fierce response from the navigator, but before he could come up with a response, a loud, pained groan from the downed fishman caught Nami's attention.

"RAIJAX!" She cried, running to his side.

"Raijax!?" The Straw Hats echoed in confusion.

Nami fell to her knees as she hastily brushed the rock off Raijax, helping him _ever_ so carefully sit up.

"Are you alright?" Nami asked his, desperation obvious in her voice.

"I... gugh..." Raijax shook his head heavily in an attempt to reorient his thoughts. "What hit me, a seaking or a seatrain?"

Nami allowed herself a tear-choked laugh. "Neither, you big idiot. That was a kick from one of my crewmates.

Raijax looked at her in surprise. "A _kick?"_ He grinned and chuckled slightly as he slowly leaned himself back. "Well, credit where it's due, your friend's got a _hell_ of a..." Raijax froze suddenly, paling in horror as his nose twitched slightly. "Kick... oh sweet mother of god and mercy..."

Nami blinked in confusion as she knelt forwards in concern. "Raijax? Raijax, what's wrong?"

The shark-hybrid slowly lifted his hand and gingerly touched the cone covering his nose, instantly jerking it back as his breath hitched violently in his throat. "My nose..." He breathed, slowly turning his head to stare at Nami in abject horror. "He... he _broke my nose..."_

Nami blinked in confusion until realization hit her like a ton of bricks, causing her face to pale into an unsightly gray. "No..." She moaned in terror.

Raijax's breathing quickened once more as his body was violently wracked by tremors. "Get out of here, Nami." He choked out.

"Raijax, _no-!"_

"GO!" He bellowed, ramming his forearm into her and shoving Nami back into her crew.

"HEY-!" Sanji snarled as he caught Nami and prevented her from falling over, but Raijax interrupted him.

"GET HER OUT OF HERE!" The fishman snarled, swinging his arm at them desperately. "G-GET HER AWAY FROM ME! NOW! B-BEFORE-! B-B-EFOO _AAAAARGH!"_ His protests devolved into a pained roar as he flopped onto his back.

" _RAIJAX, NO!"_ Nami shrieked, desperately fighting against Sanji's grip on her in an effort to return to Raijax's side so that she could do... something, _anything_ to help him.

It was actually a mercy that Sanji managed to hold her back. Before the shocked and horrified eyes of the crew, Raijax was flailing and clawing viciously, caught in the throes of a seizure straight out of hell. He writhed, roared, whined and just flat out struggled, fighting with some foe known only to him in a desperate duel for survival. Pain and terror were evident in the primal cries he gave out, but there was another emotion present, one that was slowly creeping into his voice and dominating him entirely. Only a few crewmembers truly recognized that noise, and it terrified them all to no end.

Finally, Raijax flipped himself onto his knees, where he heaved and gasped furiously as though he were drowning.

"Nnnn-n-naaami..." He ground out, forcing himself to look up at her with nothing short of pure desperation.

Nami hiccuped miserably, tears rolling freely down her cheeks as she stared at him.

"R...r-r-r... Rrr **rrrr** _ **aaaaargh!"**_ Raijax suddenly doubled over with an agonized cry, his hands wrapped over his head as he shook and shuddered furiously.

And then... he froze. Out of the blue, his entire body stopped moving, save for the occasional body-wracking quake.

Silence reigned supreme in the cavern, the only sound the harsh rasping of his breath.

Slowly, Raijax raised his head to stare at Nami.

The navigator couldn't help but sob at the sight.

Where once Raijax's eyes were normal organs filled with emotion, there were now two pupil-dominated pits that held only one thing in them: mindless rage.

Raijax's mouth moved, and his voice dragged itself out, laden with as much sorrow as it could carry. A final, desperate plea.

" **Run."**

There was no warning. No time to prepare or react.

From out of absolutely nowhere, a primal, animalistic, _bloodthirsty_ roar tore its way out of Raijax's throat as he launched himself at the Straw Hats.

" _RAIJAX!"_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

There was no sense or logic to the shark fishman's charge as he barreled towards the pirates, a fact that Raijax's senseless howl attested to. It was little more than a barbaric attack, a savage, brutal, _predatory_ rush with only one purpose: _kill._

However, for all his ferocity, Raijax's attack lacked one crucial factor: any semblance of skill or forethought whatsoever.

This was demonstrated with brutal efficiency when Sanji let Nami go in favor of catching Raijax with a vicious kick to his gut when he came within range, immediately reversing his momentum and slamming him into the wall of the cavern once anew. The sharkman wheezed and crumpled once again, returning to his starting position with a pained moan.

Sanji hummed and flexed his outstretched leg contemplatively as he observed the downed attacker. "Impressive," he mused, "Nothing to really write home about, but... impressive, especially for someone his size." He put his leg down and slid his foot back as he leaned forwards into a ready position. "Still, it won't take me long to finish him off, so you just sit back and watch, seaweed head."

Zoro scoffed dismissively as he slid Wado Ichimonji back into its sheathe, but elected not to respond beyond muttering beneath his breath.

Smirking at his victory, however minor, Sanji flexed his body in preparation for a sprint-

"HOLD IT!"

And promptly stumbled and only just managed to catch himself from falling over as Nami flung herself in his path, acting to protect the fishman from the cook's wrath.

"N-Nami!" Sanji stuttered frantically, trying to make his way around her. "Be careful, I almost kicked your head off!"

"Well I'll _almost_ snap off half my Clima-Tact in your ass if you touch so much as a _fang_ on him!" Nami snarled irately, her rage somewhat mitigated by the tears that were streaming down her cheeks.

Zoro cocked a bored eyebrow at the altercation, while Luffy blinked, crossed his arms and tilted his head to the side, his face bearing a surprisingly unreadable expression.

"Wh- I- Bu- _Nami!?"_ Sanji protested desperately. "That guy tried to rip your head off!"

"Yeah, sis!" Franky added as he used his carpenter hands to slowly unwind Chopper from the mess of ropes and seastone he was tangled in. "He's going SUPER nuts and he already tried to kill you once! Why _shouldn't_ we take this guy down?"

"Because he's _not in control of himself!"_ Nami exclaimed desperately, snapping her head from one crewmate to the next in search of support. "Because he's desperate, and scared and hurt and-!"

A sudden roar from the back of the cavern cut Nami off, snapping all attention back to where the fishman had landed. With all the grace of one of the zombies of Thriller Bark, Raijax tore his way out of the section of the wall he'd been embedded in, looking no worse for wear as he snarled and growled furiously, murderously jerking his head at the Strawhats.

Sanji blinked in shock. "He... just took one of my kicks head on and is getting up like it was nothing. That's..." He scowled as he bit into his cigarette. "Impressive. Which is _not_ a good thing."

To the surprise of everyone watching, Raijax didn't make another headlong charge. Instead, the monstrous fishman's jerking increased as he started frantically whipping his head back and forth.

Usopp grunted in pain as he leaned up and watched the fishman in morbid curiosity, flinching occasionally as Brook wrapped a bandage around his injured elbow. "What's he doing?"

Robin frowned pensively as she analyzed his actions with morbid curiosity. "He's almost like a dog trying to remove a-"

Raijax suddenly snarled viciously as he snapped his hands up to the grill covering his jaw, struggling as he attempted to worm his thick fingers beneath it and pry it off.

"-Muzzle." Robin swallowed heavily as she took a step back. "Oh dear..."

Nami paled in horror at the fishman's actions. "No no no _no!"_ she cried before facing her crew frantically. "You need to stop him before he manages to get it off, or else-!"

That was all she was able to get out before a bestial cry of victory rang out as Raijax successfully managed to get enough of a grip with his fingers to wrench his head and tear the grill from his mouth, straps and all.

The Straw Hats stiffened in abject horror as they stared at the shark-man's mouth. Or rather... what little remained of it.

"I think I'm going to be sick to my stomach..." Brook whispered.

"Holy crap..." Usopp whimpered in terror.

Zoro's knuckles turned white on Kitetsu the Third's hilt, while Luffy and Robin settled for grimacing in disquiet.

Nami's whole body tensed as she took a step back, her eyes locked on the sight. "Raijax..." she breathed, her voice carrying equal parts fear and pity.

And indeed, the fishman's mouth _did_ deserve pity, on account of how it wasn't so much a 'mouth' as it was a hole of mutilated flesh only partially covering bleach-white bone. The area where his lips would have once been was nothing more than a canvas of pale, off-color scar-tissue, exceedingly ravaged by what appeared to be a flurry of scratch, bite and burn marks, both thermal and chemical alike, of all shapes and sizes. The sheer eradication of flesh left his fangs bared in a permanent, crooked, and all-too-macabre, grin.

Raijax clacked his jaws together, snapping at the air as he tested his newly liberated range of motion. If the way he flung his head back and roared triumphantly was anything to go by, he was most _definitely_ satisfied.

Nami swiftly refocused herself, glancing back at her crew. "I realize that this must be blindingly obvious, but _don't_ let him get his jaws on you. He can crush stone with them. And..." She hesitated before sighing in resignation. "Please... just... don't hurt him. He doesn't know what he's doing."

Before anyone could respond, Raijax let out yet another bloodthirsty howl before charging at the Strawhats, slavering maw gaping wide and meaty hands outstretched in an effort to grab someone, _anyone._

Before anyone could react, a blur of blue, red and tan rammed into the fishman from the side, slamming him into the cave's wall.

Raijax howled and struggled viciously in an attempt to get free, but Franky's massive forearm didn't move an inch from his throat.

The cyborg-shipwright smirked as he firmly held his ground. "Yeah, you go ahead and struggle. You're not the first doped up guy who I've had to hold down while the buzz wears off. Take aaaall the time you need."

Nami _almost_ sighed in relief... until she noticed Raijax twisting his head to the side in an effort to snap at Franky's fist. "Franky, look out!"

However, it appeared that her concerns were unnecessary as the shark's teeth clanged off the all-too-literal brass knuckles. "Heh, come on, Nami," Franky's grin grew ever more cocky. "My body is made of cold hard steel! It'll take more than teeth to-!"

CRUNCH!

Silence reigned as the sound of tearing metal cut off Franky's boast. His expression fell into one of pure confusion as he blinked stupidly as he stared at the fangs that had sunk into the knuckle of his thumb. "What the...?"

Whatever he was about to say was cut off in a tortured shriek of ripping and tearing metal as Raijax _wrenched_ his head to the side, ripping the thumb and a good chunk of Franky's hand out in a shower of oil and blood.

" _ARGH!"_ Franky howled in agony, dropping the fishman and stumbling back as he grasped at his butchered manipulator. "SON OF A- _I_ LIKED _THAT HAND, DAMN IT!"_

"Franky!" Chopper yelped as he sat up swiftly, fighting to steady himself as he tried to deal with his lingering nausea. "Are you- _eurgh-_ alright?"

Franky scowled and hissed beneath his breath, but swiftly brought his intact hand down on his forearm, bringing the torrent of oil and blood to a halt. "I'll be fine for now," he groused. "My pride is more hurt than anything. How the hell did that bastard bite through... my..." He trailed off as he registered the thick, wet crunching sound in front of him and looked up, promptly raising his sunglasses in a desperate bid for confirmation. "Oh sweet mother of _fuck..."_

The curse was well-warranted, on account of how Raijax was tearing into his detached digit as though it were a slab of meat, shredding it with his hands and teeth alike without regard for how hard the metal was supposed to be.

However, what truly caught the eye was his teeth. His glistening, dauntless, _pitch black_ teeth.

Zoro hissed furiously as he snapped his left hand to Shusui's hilt, readying himself to unsheathe his weapons. "Right, this has gone on long enough. This ends _now."_

"What part of 'no' don't you get, damn it!?" Nami snapped, thrusting herself between the swordsman and the still-occupied shark. "I swear, if you touch him-!"

"Damn it, Nami, he can use _Armament Haki!"_ Zoro snapped impatiently. "We need to put him down, now!"

"No, what we need to do is _help_ him!" Nami shot back with equal amounts of fervor. "He can't control himself! He can't _stop_ himself! If you want to hurt him, then you'll need to go through-!"

Nami was cut off by a pair of large and leathery hands clamping down on her, one engulfing her left hand and the other almost crushing her right shoulder. The navigator's breath hitched as a _far_ too hot wave of rancid breath rolled over her. She didn't even need to glance over her shoulder to know where Raijax was staring.

"No..." she breathed in horror.

" **ARRRRR..."** The sharkman's voice roiled out furiously, a drop of blood-laced saliva dripping onto her shoulder.

"Nonono _no! RAIJAX!"_ Nami repeated herself desperately, struggling in his grip. "Look at it! Look at it, Raijax, _LOOK AT IT!"_

Unfortunately, Raijax didn't hear her. _**"LOOOOOONG!"**_ He howled, his jaws encircling her shoulder completely.

" _GUM-GUM PISTOL!"_

Luffy's fist smashed into Raijax's snout with all the grace and subtlety of the Puffing Tom. The monstrous fishman reflexively opened his mouth as his head snapped back and he stumbled backwards, releasing Nami from his grip as he did so. He caught himself after a few steps, clutching his snout, and nosecone in pain...

" _AND RIFLE!"_

Before doubling over in pain as a rapidly revolving, high-velocity fist slammed into his gut, plowing him into and _through_ not one, not two, but almost half a _dozen_ different stalagmites before he crunched into the wall, leaving him firmly imprinted in the stone.

Nami panted heavily as the adrenaline bled out of her system. "Thanks Luffy..."

She then proceeded to slap him upside the head.

"Ow!" he whined. "What was that for!?"

"For punching him in his damn _nose!"_ Nami snarled irately. "That's what started this mess in the first place! Do you _really_ want to make things worse!?"

"Hey, lay off, witch!" Zoro huffed irritably. "This is a _fight!_ You can't tell us what we can and can't do!"

"I _can_ when it concerns-!" Nami was cut off by the sound of shifting stone and metal echoing from where Raijax had landed.

"Oh you have _got_ to be kidding me." Sanji groaned in exasperation.

"He's quite the resilient fellow, isn't he?" Robin asked in a bored tone, albeit overlaid with a slight note of worry.

Raijax was working on shoving his way out of the wall, huffs and pants jerking out as his arms struggled to push him out of his imprint. As he moved, pieces of his roughshod armor shattered and came undone, large chunks of metal breaking off all at once. Of particular note was when the pauldron above his right shoulder slid off completely, displaying the fishman's shoulder.

Almost instantly, four of the Straw Hats stiffened at the sight displayed.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me..." Usopp moaned.

"No way..." Sanji hissed, his cigarette flaring up.

"So that's how it is, huh?" Zoro growled.

Luffy's eyes widened in outrage as he slowly reached up tilted his hat back.

Chopper blinked blearily in confusion. "Huh...? Wait... have I seen that before?"

"On Hammond and Hody Jones, Chopper." Robin answered grimly. "That mark is the symbol of an organization most of our crew has dealt with before."

Glistening on Raijax's shoulder, beneath a spiderweb of scars that were relatively young, were the savaged remains of a red tattoo: An intricate fish, with glaring eyes and a long, jagged nose.

"The mark of the Arlong Pirates," Nami shuddered heavily. However, the second she caught sight of Sanji making to look at her, she shook her head violently. "I-I'll explain later, alright? Just... restrain him, alright? Before he can hurt himself, or us."

A pained and furious groan focused the Straw Hats back to Raijax. They tensed as he took a step towards them... Then stared in confusion as he lunged and snapped at the air.

"Uh..." Franky blinked as the fishman flailed and swung at absolutely nothing in an all-too-literal blind rage. "Is he drunk or something?"

Zoro and Sanji examined their foe for a second before tensing visibly.

"Something like that," Sanji growled as he ground the butt of his cigarette between his teeth.

"Look at his eyes." Zoro ordered.

The less savvy Straw Hats did so, and promptly recoiled in horror. Where once Raijax's eyes were dominated by rage-filled pupils, now they showed only lifeless expanses of white, bordered by creeping red veins.

"He's unconscious!?" Usopp hissed.

"His body must be reacting solely on instinct..." Brook noted gravely, frowning at the macabre display.

Nami's jaw dropped open for a second before she slowly closed it with a tortured moan of resignation.

Chopper slowly got on his hooves and staggered to the crew, keeping a wary eye on Raijax. "He can't smell us because of his nosecone. I think that so long as we stay quiet..."

Without warning, the fishman suddenly doubled over and heaved, coughing furiously and expelling a mass of phlegm... and blood. The next instant, his body went ramrod straight, his head snapping up and his eyes swivelling back to normal.

"Or not..."

The sharkman let out a howl of hunger and outrage as he caught sight of the Straw Hats once anew before charging them full-tilt.

Luffy scowled angrily and took a step forwards. "Stay back. I'm going to end this."

Before any of the Straw Hats could respond, their captain focused intently on the incensed being.

The crew promptly hissed in a singular panicked breath as they felt Luffy's sheer, concentrated _presence_ washed over them all, all but drowning them in the sheer amount of intent made corporeal..

However, as disturbing as it was for them, it was _worse_ for Raijax. His entire frame shuddered as a burst of foam shoved it's way out of his jaws. His eyes slowly started to roll up in his head as he stumbled and started to fall...

Before his foot slammed back down on the stone, a bloodthirsty roar tearing it's way out of his throat as his eyes refocused and he resumed his charge all over again.

Luffy flinched back in shock. "That's never happened before!"

Sanji's cigarette tumbled out of his mouth as he gaped in surprise before he hastily fell into a fighting stance. "Did he just force himself to ignore Conqueror's Haki through sheer willpower _after falling to it!?_ Is that even possible!?"

Zoro grunted as he snapped out his blades, gripping Wado Ichimonji between his teeth. "Apparently it is." He growled out around his sword. "Now shut up and get ready, crap cook!"

Nami's gaze swept over her surroundings in desperation in an attempt to find any way to resolve the situation without anyone getting hurt before something ultimately drew her attention: A crack in the roof of the ceiling that had faint trails of dust and pebbles falling out of it.

Barely even thinking before she acted, Nami snapped a segment of her Clima Tact off from the whole and pointed it at the crack, a tiny bubble forming at the end. "GUST SWORD!" She screamed. The bubble burst, unleashing a minuscule but powerful cyclone that carved into the cavern. The abnormal weather ruptured the ceiling, unleashing an avalanche of stones that landed between the pirates and the fishman.

Luckily - or unluckily, depending on your point of view - Raijax managed to keep enough of his wits about him to roll away from the brutal hail.

Before the fishman could resume his attack, the sound of splitting stone filled the cave and multiple stones almost brained him. Raijax glanced between the ceiling and Straw Hats before snarling a final time and darting down a corridor and out of sight.

Unfortunately, the Straw Hats had no time to celebrate as the ground was wracked by tremors and stones fell from the ceiling like hail.

Nami cast a longing glance towards the corridor Raijax had run down before turning her back on it. "The cave is going to come down on our heads! We need to get out of here, _now!"_

With varying sounds of agreement, the Straw Hats collected their injured crewmates and beat a hasty retreat out of the corridor the majority of the crew had carved from the stone, doing their best to keep ahead as the cave system came down around their ears.

Finally, the pirate crew managed to burst out of the mouth of the cave, collapsing onto the grass in relief as the cavern filled up with stones behind them.

Usopp's chest heaved as he clutched at his injured arm. "That... was way too close..." He panted.

Nami took a second to collect her breath before glancing at Sanji. "Is... is he...?" She let out a ragged sigh of relief as Sanji nodded wearily. "Oh thank god..."

"Don't think you're in the clear yet, witch."

"Wh-HEY!" Nami yelped as Zoro grabbed her by the back of her collar and hauled her to her feet.

"Hey!" Sanji sprung to his feet. "Watch it, moss-!"

"CAN IT, SHIT COOK!" Zoro bellowed, causing the rest of the crew to reel in shock.

Sanji ground his teeth furiously, but in the end he _very_ reluctantly stood down.

"Nami..." The swordsman ground out. "Let me be clear: This whole mess is reminding me of Arlong Park, and in a _very_ bad way. Care to explain?"

Nami hesitated for a moment, glancing around at her friends. Chopper, Brook, Usopp, Sanji and even Robin were all watching her with varying degrees of concern. Franky had his sunglasses tilted up on his forehead and was analyzing her like a particularly convoluted blueprint, and Luffy... Luffy was just sitting there, his arms and legs crossed and his expression completely unreadable.

Ultimately, it was Usopp who broke the silence. "Nami, why were you protecting him?" He asked hesitantly. "That fishman... he had Arlong's mark. Doesn't that mean he could have been-?"

"His name is Raijax. And he was one of Arlong's crew."

The Straw Hats jumped slightly when Nami answered out of the blue, her voice flat and devoid of emotion, head bowed and fists clenched at her sides.

"Heck," she went on in the same tone. "He wasn't just part of the crew, he was one of his _lieutenants_ , on the same level as Hachi, Chew and Kuroobi."

Nami's fists grew tighter and tighter as her whole body started to shake with tension.

"He was a blunt, insensitive ass, who didn't ever give so much as two shits about the situation at hand or whatever emotions were at play."

Blood started to drip down from beneath her fingernails as her voice became more and more strained.

"He was a ruthless killer who always fought without mercy, and a slavedriver who couldn't even start to care less about limits. For almost a year, he thrashed me blue, black and bloody on an almost daily basis, worked me down to the bone - literally, sometimes - until I was coughing up _blood_ and more often than not had fun doing it..."

And finally, Nami had enough. Her body lost all tension as she collapsed onto her knees, sobs wracking her body as tears fountained down her cheeks.

"And he was one of the best friends... I've ever had..." She choked out. "And for the past seven years, I haven't even known whether or not he was _alive."_


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"The first thing you need to know..." Nami sighed heavily as she wrung her hands. "Is that unlike a lot of the Arlong Pirates, Raijax wasn't a Sun Pirate who defected with him. He wasn't there when they invaded Cocoyashi Village. He wasn't there when..." Her voice nearly caught in her throat, but she forced herself to power through. "Arlong killed my mother. He joined after all that."

The Straw Hats had relocated to a patch of grass a little ways away from the sealed cave's mouth. Nami was sitting on a medium sized rock with the rest of the crew arrayed before her.

Usopp raised his hand, a confused expression on his face. "Wait, so he just showed up and joined as a lieutenant out of the blue?"

Nami grimaced and shook her head. "Not... quite. Raijax showed up about two years after I joined the crew. And he _definitely_ wasn't subtle about it..."

 **~o~**

 _A twelve year old Nami jerked awake with a panicked gasp before clutching her right arm with a hiss of pain. The limb was heavily wrapped in bloody bandages, a parting gift from the last pirate captain she'd robbed._

 _Once the pain in her wounds subsided, the young girl was able to focus long enough to identify what had woken her up: Some kind of commotion going on outside her room, voices and movement aplenty._

 _After a moment of_ very _harsh deliberation, Nami ultimately elected to find out what all the fuss was about. With, what was to her, an immense amount of effort and energy, Nami heaved herself off of her desk, wincing slightly as the blood on her arm that had dried to her desk came unstuck._

 _Staggering her way to the room's window, Nami grimaced slightly at the sight of the fishmen milling about outside on the balcony before pushing the portal open. "Hey," she half-croaked half-yawned, sleep muddling her voice as she attempted to catch the attention of whoever she could. "What's going on?"_

 _A burly, dark yellow fishman with an underbite glanced over his shoulder at her, briefly considering telling her to... buzz off, if in less polite words, before dismissing the notion. "Marine ship just came into view on the horizon," he grunted with a fang-filled grin. "Arlong already sent out the boys to... 'greet them'. Stick around, this is gonna be a hell of a show! Chehehehe!"_

 _Nami shuddered as the pirate continued to chuckle darkly, turning his attention back to the water. She thought about slamming her window shut and curling up under her desk until the morbid display was finished, but in the end she settled with leaning on the window frame, arms folded beneath her chin as she apathetically watched the distant ship sail closer. She might as well watch as, once anew, all hopes of freedom were annihilated to a T._

 _Just as had happened every time before, and as would happen every time since._

 _ **-o-**_

 _Chew grumbled darkly under his breath as he scaled the side of the marine ship whose crew was stupid enough to sail towards Arlong Park. At any other time, the smelt-whiting fishman would be eager for the upcoming confrontation, ready to taunt the inferior human soldiers with their upcoming demise at the drop of a hat. He was_ not _as eager at_ seven in the goddamn morning _after a night of partying that left him_ hungover.

 _No, he was just going to pop onto the deck, shoot some Water Bullets through the limbs of whatever officers he could see and whatever Marines were stupid enough to attack him, wait for Kuroobi and Hachi to rip out the rudder and sink the ship, then return to his bed and_ sleep.

 _This plan was promptly shot straight to hell when Chew was hit by a noxious wave of scent: blood, and_ lots _of it. Hesitating momentarily, he debated scuttling the entire plan before choosing to chance whatever was on deck rather than risking a tired and thoroughly irritated Arlong's fangs. Sometimes, it_ really _sucked to be on a crew with next to no morning people._

 _Taking the plunge, Chew hauled himself up and over the side of the ship's railing... and was promptly forced to fight to keep his scant breakfast in his stomach. He hadn't seen anything this bad since arriving in the East Blue, and he took a moment to chide himself for the weakness._

 _Still, even in the Grand Line, massacres this gruesome were_ not _common. It looked like someone had taken a hundred men and fed them through a large fan, or an industrial meatgrinder. Blood, blood-soaked cloth and shredded bits of meat and bone coated nearly every square inch of the deck and lower masts. Most of the gore was unrecognizable as anything resembling a body part, though some of the larger pieces could only just be identified. At a glance, it looked like they had all been_ torn _to pieces, all-too-literally ripped limb from limb._

 _Situated in the middle of the slaughter, on top of a pile of relatively intact corpses, was the strangest and most terrifying-looking fishman Chew had ever seen: A great white shark, bearing arms and legs and clad in a set of marginally makeshift plate armor, with a grill of metal and a cone fixed over his mouth and nose. Next to the fishman's arm was a trident, sticking out of the back of an intact corpse that was dressed in the uniform of an officer._

 _The sharkman gave Chew a once over, what little of his expression that was visible broadcasting an air of 'not impressed'. "You with Arlong?" he rasped in a rough, sandstone voice._

 _Chew swallowed heavily and nodded, prepared to leap over the edge of the ship at a moment's notice, for what little good it would do._

" _You got any back up coming with you?"_

 _Another tentative nod._

" _Good." The sharkman stood up and grabbed the shaft of his trident, planting his foot on the shoulder of the officer as he wrenched the tines out of his back. "Call them. Tell them to tow the ship into the Park."_

 _Chew managed to force his tongue to work again as he steeled his shoulders. "Why?" He demanded._

 _The sharkman stared at Chew flatly. "Because I want to talk to Arlong." He drawled, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world._

 _Chew narrowed his eyes defiantly. "I'll repeat the question, chew. Why?"_

 _The sharkman narrowed his eyes in turn. He then slowly marched up to Chew, coming closer and closer until his girth was looming above the pirate, the blood that caked him invading Chew's nostrils. "I just slaughtered an entire marine vessel, down to the last man, and piloted it to the front door of the most xenophobic fishman this side of the Red Line." He leaned forwards and breathed out a raspy huff, letting his rancid breath waft over Chew. "What the fuck do you_ think _I want?"_

 _Barely mastering his gag and fight-or-flight reflexes, Chew spun around and bent over the edge of the ship's railing. "KUROOBI! HATCHAN! GET UP HERE!" he bellowed._

 _Moments later, Hatchan and Kuroobi's heads broke the surface of the ocean, staring up at their fellow lieutenant in confusion. "Everything alright, Chew?" The octo-swordsman called up._

'Hell no, I'm on a ship with a Grand Line grade nutjob, chew!' _"Everything's... fine, chew. Just... I'm going to throw some lines overboard. Grab them and tow the ship into the Park, chew."_

 _Kuroobi frowned in concern. "What? Why, what's up?"_

 _Chew hesitated as he glanced at the mass of muscle towering behind him before finally finding an appropriate response. "We... have a new crewmate."_

 _ **-o-**_

 _Nami blinked in confusion as she saw the fishman officers attach lines to the ship and start hauling it into the Park. Normally, they'd just sink the ship and be done with it. For them to actually tow the ship into the Park meant they had found something important. This sentiment seemed to be shared across the Park, if the way the fishmen were congregating around Arlong's throne was anything to go by._

 _After a moment of hesitation, the girl ran to her room's door and started navigating her way through the building's corridors and stairwells, making her way down to the ground floor while deftly avoiding the other fishmen who'd had the same idea. Once she reached the bottom, she contemplated the mass of homo aquaria that were milling about outside before resigning herself to watching events from one of the building's windows, situating herself at one that gave her an angle from which she could watch events._

 _Arlong was leaning back in his throne, contemplating the approaching ship with a bored sort of interest. He leaned forwards slightly as the vessel was towed up before him, Hatchan and Kuroobi crawling up onto the dock and tugging on the ropes so that the prow of the ship bumped into the stonework. "What a lovely vessel," he drawled, the slightest hint of an edge present in his voice. "Care to tell me where its crew is and why it's not resting on the bottom of the ocean?"_

" _They're all dead, chew," Chew called down from the deck. "Dead to the last man. And it wasn't us, chew." He hastily added when he noticed the impatient overtone in Arlong's glare._

" _Oh yeah?" he asked with vague interest. "Then who was it?"_

 _Chew made to open his mouth..._

" _Me."_

 _And promptly zipped his lips as the sharkman shoved his way past him, a trident clutched in his right hand and the corpse of an outfitted officer in his left. He leapt off the end of the prow and landed on the pier, barely even flinching as the concrete cracked beneath his feet._

 _Once he was on solid land, the sharkman reeled his left arm back and flung the corpse at Arlong. The pile of meat rolled on the concrete before coming to a halt at the sawshark fishman's feet._

 _Arlong cocked an eyebrow at the corpse, but didn't respond._

 _The sharkman started to prowl towards the other shark fishman..._

" _Hey, buddy!"_

 _Until he was stopped by a black and orange clownfish fishman stepping in front of him and pressing his palm into his chest._

" _Let's get one thing straight: if you wanna talk with the boss, you gotta-!"_

 _CRUNCH!_

" _AAARGH!" The fishman's cocky expression collapsed into a rictus of agony as the sharkman dropped his own, much_ larger _hand on his shoulder and_ squeezed. _A wet cracking sound rang out as the clownfish fishman howled in agony, collapsing to his knees as the sharkman squeezed his shoulder tighter and tighter in his hand._

 _Finally, after what seemed like an eternal moment of agony, the sharkman jerked his arm and flung him out into the crowd, where his comrades only just barely managed to catch him. The sharkman then proceeded to continue his march, until he was only a scant three feet away from Arlong._

 _The two sharks stared at one another for several minutes in complete silence, neither's face divulging much about their emotions._

 _Finally, Arlong grunted and shifted his posture slightly, resting his cheek on his fist. "You got a name?"_

 _The sharkman rumbled out a noise of confirmation. "Raijax."_

 _Arlong grunted in turn and nodded slightly, the two resuming their staring contest. Finally, he displayed his fangs in a predatory leer. "So, is there a reason you look like you belong in an aquarium?"_

 _The rest of the Arlong Pirates tensed in fear of the reaction, but Raijax merely shrugged dismissively. "Fishmen are twenty-five percent fish, merfolk are fifty. Dad was a fishman, mom was a mermaid. Genetics got screwed up and I got seventy-five. Nothing to it."_

 _Arlong nodded slowly in understanding. "I see, I see... And what about this, hm?" He nudged the corpse before him. "Is there a reason you decided to deliver a..." He glanced down at the uniform. "Marine commander's corpse to me?"_

 _Raijax rolled his shoulders as his demeanor shifted, becoming notably aggressive. "A gift, plain and simple. I heard that you're running the greatest anti-human campaign in history. Making them pay for what they've done to our nation. To our people." He redoubled his grip on his trident, stamping its butt into the stone. "I want in."_

 _Arlong sat up in his throne, eyeing the sharkman with redoubled interest. "Oh yeah?" he asked with vague interest. "And why should I let you?"_

 _Raijax's expression became a portrait of exasperated neutrality as he jerked a thumb back at the ship. "I just_ killed _an entire ship full of Marines for you."_

 _The sawshark fishman scoffed dismissively. "Impressive, sure, but barely anything in the long run." He leaned forwards, his forearms balanced on his knees as he leered at the sharkman. "If you want to join my crew, then you_ really _need to prove yourself. Well and truly prove your determination, your dedication to the enslavement of humanity, to my empire. Show that there is_ nothing _that will stop you." His grin widened by a few fangs. "Can you_ really _do that?"_

 _Raijax's body drained of all emotion as he stared at the pirate captain. Ultimately, however, he shrugged, flipping his trident and planting its tines in the stone. "You want proof?" He started fiddling with the straps that held his mouthguard and breastplate in place with one hand each. "Fine by me." He swung the armor open on its hinges. "How's this?"_

 _Arlong recoiled in horror almost instantly, shock and extreme disgust written across his face. The Arlong Pirates shared this opinion in full, many staggering back and heaving in horror at the morbid display. Nami could only half understand their actions, as while her viewpoint allowed her to observe Raijax's... 'mouth' in all its devastated glory, his breastplate was in the way of whatever was on his chest._

 _Before she could relocate in an attempt to catch sight of what further horrors the sharkman held, he swung his breastplate back into place, snapping it shut. "Satisfied?" He ground out._

 _Arlong shuddered in revulsion as he looked the sharkman up and down. "Do I even_ want _to know?" he growled, his voice a mixture of disgust and fury._

" _That depends..." Raijax grunted, securing the latches on his breastplate. "You ever want to eat meat again?"_

" _Yes."_

 _Raijax slammed his jawguard back into place. "Then hell no. Now..." He clicked the armor's latch shut and crossed his arms. "I'll repeat the question: Satisfied?"_

 _Arlong was silent for a second more as he considered matters. Finally, he stood up and crossed the distance between him and Raijax, smiling in full force as he landed a hand on the sharkman's shoulder. "BROTHERS!" He bellowed. "WE HAVE A NEW CREWMATE!"_

 _And just like that, all the tension evaporated as the Arlong Pirates erupted into cheers, welcoming Raijax as one of their own and gearing up for a massive party._

 _And through it all, Nami watched from the window. Watched as yet another monster joined the ranks of her tormentors._

 ** _~o~_**

"And that was that." Nami shrugged. "Raijax joined the crew and started carving out a spot on the crew until, in little over a week, he was one of Arlong's right hand men. He fit right in, like he was a long-lost brother who'd finally come home."

"Did you ever see what was on his chest?" Chopper asked.

The navigator shook her head. "No, never. As a matter of fact, I think that was the only time he ever took his armor off where anyone could see it. Although... now that I think about it..." Nami's hand unconsciously rose to her suddenly throbbing tattoo. "I do have my suspicions..." She shook her head firmly and snapped her hand away. "B-but anyways, that doesn't matter. The fact is, Raijax and I weren't ever formally introduced. The first time we met was two weeks after he joined."

 **~o~**

 _Nami grumbled darkly as she marched through the corridors of Arlong Park, itching furiously at the bandages on her arm. Stupid jellyfish doctor, stupid seaweed salve. Healing properties her ass, this stuff_ stung _damn it!_

 _The young navigator was so wrapped up in her murderous, sushi-related thoughts that she, quite ironically, failed to pay proper attention to where she was going._

 _As a result, it came as a complete shock when Nami ran headfirst into something big, hard and metal. She gave a cry of pain as she bounced off the obstacle, ramming her injured arm on the ground._

" _SON OF A-!" Nami hissed furiously, glaring up at what she'd hit. Her words almost died in her throat when she registered that it was Raijax's face staring down at her, but the pain drove her to swiftly rally. "Why don't you watch where you're going, you big... bastard!?" she ultimately spat out._

 _Raijax blinked slowly, settling his eyelids at a bored half-mast. "You ran into me." He observed flatly._

 _Nami scowled and ground her teeth furiously before shoving her way past him with her good arm. "Whatever..." she bit out. "Just... stay away from me. Weirdo."_

 _Nami didn't look back as she marched away, but Raijax did, staring after the child as she left with stomped down the hall with more venom than anyone her age had the right to have._

 _Once she was out of sight, Raijax bowed his head and started scratching beneath his fin, muttering and grumbling occasionally beneath his breath as a number of thoughts and opinions weighed themselves in his skull._

 _Finally, with a shake of his head and a mutter of "Stupid, stupid,_ stupid," _he marched away to a new destination._

 _ **-o-**_

" _Arlong." Raijax rumbled as he marched up to the sawshark fishman, who was, as per usual, lounging on his throne._

" _Hm?" Arlong turned a bored eye towards the sharkman before grinning. "Ah, Raijax. What brings you here? Any issues?"_

 _Raijax grunted and rolled his shoulders. "I just ran into a girl in the base. A human."_

 _Arlong's grin grew by a few fangs. "Ah, yes. That would be Nami, our navigator. Brilliant girl, for a human. Her maps are more detailed than most adult fishmen can manage. She's a true asset to the crew."_

" _Of her own free will?" Raijax queried flatly._

 _Arlong's grin widened even further as he waved a hand in a so-so manner. "We... have an agreement. I have offered to sell her home village, Cocoyashi, back to her for the low price of one hundred million berries. Until she manages to raise the money, she works for me, mapping out the whole of the East Blue to aid in the expansion of my empire. Once the maps are complete..." He clenched his hand into a fist. "Nothing and nobody will be able to stand in our way."_

 _The sharkman glanced up at the main building of the Park before refocusing on Arlong. "She was injured."_

 _Arlong's smirk dropped into a firm scowl. "Yes... she's taken to robbing pirates to raise money for the village."_

 _Raijax's brow furrowed into a definite frown. "A dangerous task. She's already been hurt. What if she's killed?"_

 _Arlong's teeth ground together like sandpaper as he glared out at the horizon. "I know, I know, but I don't have a choice. I swore I wouldn't stop her from getting the money, so I can't prevent her from leaving. I tried to give her a protection detail, bodyguards, but she refused. She said that they would have ruined her scams." The pirate lord snarled in exasperation as bowed his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'd stop her if I could, but... I swore on my honor as a fishman. I need to follow the letter of the deal... no matter how much I might not want to."_

 _Raijax contemplated this for a moment before shrugging. "Alright then. I'll train her."_

 _Arlong blinked and glanced at him. "Hm?"_

" _I said I'll train her." The sharkman reasserted. "Teach her how to fight, make her stronger. At least that way she'll have half a chance of surviving."_

 _Arlong blinked again before scoffing. "Heh. You think you can teach a human?"_

" _I'll work her to the bone."_

 _The natural fishman's eyes narrowed with a combination of menace and warning. "...I need her to be able to draw maps."_

 _Raijax shook his hand side to side. "Eh... Fair warning, there'll probably be some blood on them."_

 _Arlong's killer smile blazed to full force. "Heh. How will that be any different?_

 _Apart from a slow blink, Raijax didn't appear to react. Unseen by anyone, one of his hands momentarily snapped into a fist before relaxing._

" _Either way, fine." Arlong waved his hand. "You can train Nami."_

 _Raijax nodded firmly. "Good. I'll go and tell her. She won't leave this island for at least a month, until I'm sure she won't just up and die."_

 _And with that, Raijax spun on his heel and left, marching into the central building of the Park. Arlong slowly slid his eyes shut, leaning back into his throne and starting to relax... before blinking in surprise as the sounds of a scuffle broke out high above him, drawing attention from fishmen all over the Park. Without warning, a piercing and_ very _familiar scream rang out, followed by_ something _splashing into the bay._

 _Moments later, Raijax landed on the stonework, staring at the point of impact in the bay from which a stream of bubbles was boiling up._

" _Heh," Arlong smirked. "'Tell her', huh?"_

 _Raijax shrugged indifferently. "What can I say? This kind of training is sink or swim."_

 _It was at that moment that Hatchan poked his head out of a window in the central building, blinking in surprise. "Oh, you guys are teaching Nami how to swim?"_

 _Raijax and Arlong snapped their heads around to stare at Hatchan for a second. Then, ever so slowly, they turned to stare at the bay..._ just _as the bubbles stopped coming up._

 _Silence reigned for a moment until Arlong's jaws split into a murderous scowl, a bloodthirsty growl crawling out of his throat. "_ Raijax... _"_

" _Son of a- SHIT!" The sharkman spat, leaping into the bay._

 _He emerged a few seconds later, holding a coughing and wheezing Nami up and out of the water by her ankle._

" _You're going to be a lot more trouble than you're worth, aren't you?" ae muttered darkly._

 _Nami's response was to unload the contents of her water-logged stomach right in his face._

 ** _~o~_**

"The next two weeks were..." Nami shuddered violently. "Well, it was almost always hell back then, but Raijax didn't make things any better. I think he made it his life's work to redefine a few words. Arduous, painful, cruel and unusual torture. Things like that."

Zoro scoffed in disbelief. "How bad could one fishman be?"

Nami pinned him with a flat look. "Remember how I said he threw me off the top of Arlong Park? Once I learned how to swim, he woke me up like that _every day._ He also made me work on my endurance by having me swim laps."

The swordsman rolled his eye.

"Around the _island."_

That elicited a look of surprise.

"And if the training coincided with Momoo's feeding time, he'd either tie meat to me or me to Momoo." Nami tilted her head slightly. "And those were just his _swimming_ lessons."

Zoro's eye widened for a second before he smirked and nodded with respect.

Nami held the look for a second before sighing and shaking her head. "Anyways... as bad as all that was, he was _almost_ worse with the bojutsu training. He gave me my first staff and... well, he taught me... but not the traditional way."

 **~o~**

" _OW!" Nami cried out as she landed on her back, wooden staff clattering at her side._

" _You left your left side open, brat." Raijax grunted, spinning his trident in his hand. "You need to be ready to shift your guard at any time."_

" _Aren't you supposed to tell me that_ before _you hit me!?" The girl demanded._

 _Raijax shook his head firmly. "If I told you, then you wouldn't be hurt because of your mistake. If you don't hurt, you don't learn. That's how I learned, so that's how I'll teach. Now get up."_

 _Nami bit her lip as she glared up at the sharkman._

 _Raijax narrowed his eyes at her. "You want me to_ make _you get up, brat? Because I assure you, that will_ not _be pleasant."_

 _Nami scowled furiously, but she picked up her staff and got to her feet nevertheless._

 _The second her stance was properly solidified, Raijax sprung forwards and swung his trident at her. Nami ducked beneath it-_

 _THWACK!_

 _And was promptly slammed onto her back once again by the sharkman's tail slapping her in the face._

" _Always look for a follow-up," Raijax grated in a bored tone. "Because even if you manage to dodge one attack, your opponent will keep going with another. Now get up and get ready to go again."_

 _Nami let out a screech of outrage._

 **~o~**

"I've... never hated _anyone_ more than Arlong in my entire life," Nami admitted. "But for a while, Raijax was a very close second. I honestly thought he was another fishman pirate bastard who got his laughs beating up on the poor human kid, or 'brat', as he so often called me, who couldn't fight back."

"But something changed your mind." Robin deduced.

Nami nodded in agreement. "It was midway through the third week. I was walking through the outskirts of Cocoyashi Village, on my way to see Nojiko." She grimaced and ran her hand through her hair. "Unfortunately, because of the training, I lost track of the date..."

 **~o~**

" _Stupid shark bastard," Nami muttered darkly to herself as she walked down the main street of Cocoyashi village, the villagers giving her a wide berth as she nursed the canvas of bruises that covered her arms. "Stupid Arlong, stupid_ fucking _pirates-"_

 _Her mutterings continued in this vein as she approached the outskirts of town, where Bellemere's - technically Nojiko's, but still - orchard was, and would have continued right up until she knocked on her sister's door had she not heard an all-too-familiar tone of voice._

" _P-please, I-I'm sorry! I don't have the money for this month! B-But I can have enough for both months_ next _month! I-I just need some more time!"_

 _Ducking behind a nearby tree, Nami watched as a red snapper fishman snorted derisively at the woman's plea, not loosening his grip on her arm._

" _Yeah, and ya got three kids to feed, too, I'll bet," the fishman deadpanned tauntingly, before roughly shaking the woman and drawing her in close. "We've heard it all before, ya pathetic human. Y'just never seem to understand that there are two choices here. Ya pay on time, or ya don't pay at all. Because, y'know, you'll be fucking_ dead. _"_

 _Nami's knuckles turned white as her grip on the tree redoubled. She knew exactly where this was going. She had seen where this went, and she never wanted to see it again, but try as she might, she couldn't bring herself to tear her eyes away from the scene in front of her._

" _P-Please, I-"_

" _Ah, for fuck's sake," the fishman groaned. "Y'know what? I think I'm gonna just snuff ya right now. Just so I don't have to listen to that pathetic whine of yours anymore."_

 _Nami watched as the fishman reached for a pistol tucked into his sash. She jammed her eyes shut, waiting for the morbid spectacle to just_ finish _._

" _Hey."_

 _All of a sudden, a familiar raspy voice spoke up, grinding the scene to a halt as the fishman and humans snapped their heads around to stare at the source of the voice. Standing three meters away, his expression set in a steel-melting glower and a large canvas sack slung over his shoulder, was Raijax._

" _B-boss!" the snapper fishman stammered, cold sweat springing up over his body. "W-what are you-!?"_

" _What the hell do you think you're doing." The sharkman rasped, slowly stalking up to the adults._

 _Swallowing nervously at the approaching sharkman's palpable bad mood and bloodlust, the fishman released the human and slowly backpedalled, waving his hands in defensively. "I-I'm just getting this month's taxes, boss! T-this stinking human says she doesn't have it so I was... just..." He trailed off as Raijax loomed over him, the height difference blatantly obvious as he was forced to crane his neck back._

" _Going to punish her and her family for not having it, Right?" Raijax finished, his voice deathly grim._

 _The fishman smiled and nodded eagerly. "Y-yeah. Yeah, right!"_

 _Raijax glanced at the terrified woman, who was rubbing her arm and looked about two seconds from either bolting or fainting. Sighing heavily, he shifted his grip on the canvas sack..._

" _Moron."_

 _And slammed the snapper fishman upside the head with it._

 _The fishman sputtered and flailed as he fell on his ass, pain shooting throughout his jaw. "B-boss, what-!?"_

" _Do you know what I just hit you with?"_

" _N-no...?" the fishman said, trailing off in confusion._

 _Raijax held the bag before the fishman's face and gave it a hearty shake, producing a jingling noise. "Two hundred and fifty thousand berries. Enough for an adult and three kids for one month."_

 _The fishman's expression remained blank as the gears ground to life in his head until he finally made the connection, paling in horror. "W-wait, but isn't that-?"_

" _The tax for this house?" Raijax tilted his head towards the woman of the house in question. "Yes. It is. The reason they didn't have the money was because I already got it." He knelt forwards, overshadowing the fishman entirely. "You complete. Fucking. Idiot."_

 _The fishman had an expression akin to that of a man who'd unexpectedly just had an axe buried in his chest, sweat beginning to drip off his brow. "B-but then why didn't they-!?"_

 _Raijax's free hand slapped the side of his head, enough to daze but not stun. "They're humans, genius. Do you really think somebody as pathetic as them could defend themselves like that?"_

" _Ah..." The fishman hesitated for a moment before smiling shakily. "W-well then..."_

 _Raijax's eyes fell into a bored half-mast. "Let me guess. You want to justify almost killing them with the fact that they're pathetic humans. Am I right?"_

 _The woman squeaked in terror as she tried to hide behind the door to her house._

 _The fishman started to nod... and promptly received yet another faceful of compacted coin. "Idiot!" Raijax growled. "They can't pay us if they're dead. No cash, no Arlong Empire. If you kill then while they can still pay, then_ you _pay. Just how_ stupid _are you?!"_

" _I-I-!" The fishman stumbled over his words for a moment... before shrieking in terror as Raijax's trident buried itself in the ground between his legs._

" _Shut up. Get out of my sight before I turn you into_ goddamn sushi. _"_

 _And with that, the fishman promptly scrambled to get the hell out of dodge, and maybe even the East Blue while he was at it._

 _Raijax watched as the fishman tore down the road, waiting until he was well and truly out of sight before turning to face the woman._

 _She flinched back as he towered above her... then blinked in confusion when he knelt down before her, sinking to her eye level._

" _Can you really get enough money by next month?" he growled out in his approximation of a whisper, still loud enough for Nami to hear._

 _The woman stammered and tried to come up with an answer, but ultimately she bit her lip and nodding her head nervously. "M-m-maybe? I thought I could get by without joining the village pool but... Even then, I-I don't..."_

 _Raijax rattled out a sigh and clenched his eyes shut as he shook his head, running his hand over his snout. "Right... right..." He looked at her tiredly. "If you come up short, find me the day before the tax. I'll wait on Jakono Beach."_

 _The woman slowly smiled and made to speak, but was cut off by Raijax shooting to his feet and slamming his hand into the wall next to her head hard enough to leave a visible dent._

" _Don't. Tell. Anyone." Raijax hissed. "About what I just told you, about what just happened, none of it. If you do, I'll make what that moron intended to do look like a_ mercy."

 _And with that, the sharkman spun around and marched out of the house, stomping down the road towards Arlong Park._

 _Once Nami was certain her 'teacher' was gone, she darted out of cover and ran to the still-dumbstruck woman._

 **~o~**

"I asked her if she was alright, if she was hurt. She told me that she was fine, but..." Nami shook her head slowly. "She also told me that she really _didn't_ have the money for that month. She didn't know where Raijax got that money from, but..." She spread her arms helplessly. "The fact remains: He _saved_ that woman, and her family."

Silence reigned over the Straw Hats as they processed that statement until Franky broke the silence. "Uh, sis..." He started uncomfortably. "I don't know about you... but one good deed doesn't really excuse being a SUPER bastard. Right?"

"That's... the thing." The navigator smiled slightly. "Raijax... he wasn't _actually_ that bad of a fishman."

Luffy cocked his head to the side. "But didn't you say-?"

"After that little... incident," Nami interrupted. "I started shadowing Raijax. Whenever he wasn't doing his best to beat me half to death, of course. I just... watched him go about his daily life. Acting as Arlong's lieutenant and an Arlong Pirate in general. When the other pirates bullied and brutalized the villagers for fun, Raijax didn't participate. He just..." She shrugged. "Loomed, in the background, or stood just close enough to the action that it looked like he was a part of it. With his size and looks, that was all he ever really needed to do in the first place. The _only_ time he ever actually laid his hands on a human was when Arlong ordered it or one of the other lieutenants was nearby, and even then he always did just enough to do the job and no more."

Nami bit her cheek as she shook her head slightly. "Raijax... he did his best to look like one... but he was never one of them. He never even tried."

"Oh?" Brook cocked his skull to the side. "But if that's so, then why did he remain? Or even ally himself with those heinous fiends in the first place, for that matter?"

"I didn't know, and I wouldn't know for a while, until about a week after that incident." Nami admitted. "You see, Arlong and his crew decided to throw a huge party for... some reason or other. Probably just for the hell of it, most likely. By all standards, it was a fairly normal thing: drinks, food, fun... so long as you were a fishman, that is. Personally, I never wanted anything to do with them, so I did what I always did: I snuck out of the Park and went to visit Bellemere's grave so that I could be alone for awhile. This time, though... I wasn't the only person there."

 **~o~**

" _What the hell are you doing here!?"_

 _Raijax, sitting cross-legged on the ground in front of Bellemere's grave, glanced back at the outraged child in schooled disinterest before holding up the clay sake bottle he was clutching and shaking it with a look that just screamed 'are you blind?'. "Drinking."_

 _Nami growled in frustration at the sharkman, about two seconds from trying to pull her hair out. "I mean why are you doing it here!? Why aren't you partying with the rest of your..." She hesitated slightly before finishing darkly. "Your friends?"_

 _Raijax shrugged, turning around and looking back at the cross and the ocean beyond it, occasionally taking sips from his bottle. "Not my kind of scene. Too loud, too crowded. I prefer to drink with as few people around as possible."_

 _Nami twitched slightly as she stared at him, her expression unreadable for a second before she finally huffed tiredly and marched up next to him, sitting down in front of the cross alongside him. "Fine. Whatever. Just... leave me alone."_

 _And so, the two sat alone in silence, Nami watching the cross and periodically reaching up to wipe her eyes, whereas Raijax stared off into the distance, taking the occasional hit from his bottle._

 _Finally, Raijax cleared his throat and glanced down at Nami, speaking up. "Hey, brat..."_

 _Nami glanced at him with a muddled flash of confusion and rage, but it eventually faded into detached indifference and she didn't say anything. Raijax took that as permission to continue._

" _This grave..." He eyed the wooden cross neutrally. "I heard about it walking around in town. It's for a lady who stood up to Arlong, right?"_

 _Nami was silent for a moment before nodding minutely. "Mm hmm..."_

" _Huh." The shark fishman took in the memorial cross again, a glint of respect in his eyes. "Brave lady. Must have taken guts."_

" _Mmm..."_

 _Silence descended upon the pair again, broken only by the waves far below and the occasional sloshing of the sake as Raijax took another swig._

" _That lady..." He finally said. "She was your mom, right?"_

" _..." Nami curled in on herself more, tightening her grip on her legs._

" _Think she liked sake?"_

 _Nami blinked in surprise before scrunching her face up in thought. It had been so long since she'd_ really _thought about her, and it bothered Nami that she had so much trouble remembering. "...she sometimes drank it with Genzo." She finally answered, somewhat unsure._

" _Old guy with the pinwheel?" Raijax queried contemplatively, glancing up to the sky in thought. "Yeah, he's got guts too. Anyways..." He leaned forwards and turned his sake bottle upside down over the soil, pouring out half of what remained over the grave._

 _Nami stared at him in surprise and confusion, and more than a little indignation. "Why?"_

 _Raijax hefted the bottle absentmindedly before planting it in the grass beside him with a shrug. "She's dead. That doesn't mean she isn't thirsty..."_

 _He trailed off and sighed heavily as he stared at the star-spangled horizon. "You know... you've just gotta admit, it's a hell of a view."_

 _Nami's frustration died down slightly at the explanation, but she swiftly rallied. "Not just that."_

 _Raijax blinked and glanced down at her, but didn't say anything. Nami took that as a sign to continue._

" _You're not like the others. You don't hurt humans, you don't insult them. I_ saw _you with that woman last week, I saw you at Jakono Beach. You protect us, help us... why are you here?" She looked at him dead in the eyes for the first time that night, her expression pleading. "Why is someone like you working with Arlong?"_

 _For a moment, Raijax stared at her solemnly before turning his head to look at the cross. "Hell of a brave woman." He mused, ignoring Nami's confusion at the apparent non-sequitur. "Standing up to Arlong even though it was a death sentence, all for you and your sister. Courage and kindness all in one package... It doesn't matter what the hell Arlong says, there are some amazing humans out there. But, you know..."_

 _He looked down at her solemnly, and suddenly he looked old. The kind of old Nami had sometimes seen in Bellemere, and all too often in Genzo. "There are some bad humans out there too. Damn shitty ones. Evil, in fact. Humans as bad or even worse than Arlong." He slowly raised his hand and rubbed at the part of his armor that covered his throat. "I've seen them. Met them. experienced them. They hurt me. Made my life hell. Like Arlong's doing to you. Maybe even worse, depending on how you look at it. At least my hell ended..." He shifted his hand to his ever-present nosecone. "In a manner of speaking..."_

" _I-" Nami started, but Raijax plowed on ahead of her._

" _I realize how hard this must be for you to believe... but there are some pretty amazing fishmen out there too..." He sighed heavily, his eyes losing focus as his voice took on a wistful tone. "Kind fishmen. Incredible fishmen. My mother. She was one of them. She loved me from birth. She... might as well have been a goddess... On par with Queen Otohime herself..."_

 _And just like that, his face twisted into a rictus of pained fury. "And just like humans, there are evil fishmen. My father. He threw me out of my home for being a monster. And other fishmen, they hurt me for being different. They were the ones who gave me to the evil humans, sold me. They knew what they'd do to me, and they didn't care."_

 _Nami blinked in confusion as she tried to process what he was saying. "What...?"_

 _Raijax glanced down at her as though he was remembering she was there for the first time before electing to move on. He settled back into the same position as her, pulling up his legs and hugging them tightly. "The point is... that I know for a fact that anyone can be evil, and anyone can be good. Humans, fishmen... it doesn't matter. We're both capable of being angels or devils. What you are or what a person is doesn't change that. What Arlong's doing?" He glanced at the source of light and sound in the distance, dominating the landscape around it. "He's evil. A devil to the core. Just as evil as the humans who hurt me."_

" _Then why join his crew!? I mean, you just gave me a great speech on why you_ shouldn't _be joining his crew!" Nami demanded with all the indignant fury her twelve-year-old body could muster._

 _Raijax grimaced with a heavy sigh. "He's a devil, but he's a strong devil, with a lot of followers. If I tried to tackle him head-on, he'd kill me like your mom. Like so many others before. It'd be brave, but unlike her, it'd be pointless. I wouldn't accomplish anything. Best I can do is pretend to be with him, pretend to be a part of his crew. Help out where I can, however I can. Cover the taxes for a few families without anyone being the wiser. It's not much, in the grand scheme of things, but at least it's something..."_

" _Well..." Nami hesitated slightly, the passion ebbing out of her voice. "What about those Marines?" Nami demanded, though with far less passion from before._

" _Ignoring the fact that only one in ten Marines is actually a decent sapient being?" Raijax snorted derisively. "Those ones were under the command of Commander Nezumi, Arlong's local Marine toady. He tends to recruit those too corrupt for other Marine districts. Killing them is a service to the universe, and since I managed to jump them in the middle of a storm, the rat probably thinks they were just lost at sea."_

" _O-oh..." Nami settled down slightly._

 _The pair settled into silence, staring morosely at the cross and the dark ocean beyond. Suddenly, an outburst of noise from the Park in the distance caused Nami to flinch, cracking her shell and allowing a few sobs and tears to involuntarily slip out._

 _Raijax glanced down at her in concern, obviously debating with himself for a second before sighing heavily. He reached down, picked up the sake bottle and handed it to Nami. "Here. Have some."_

 _The girl sniffed and stared at the bottle in equal parts hesitance and confusion. "I... uh..."_

" _It's not a good habit to get into, especially not young..." Raijax admitted. "But... If anyone's ever needed it, it's you."_

 _After yet another moment of hesitation, Nami finally made up her mind, taking the bottle and sipping a bit. She winced at the acrid taste, but steeled herself and started to chug as much as she could._

" _Hey hey hey, not all of it!" Raijax yelped, wrenching the bottle out of her hands._

" _W- Hey! I thought you said I could have it!"_

" _I said you could have_ some! _You're not the only one who needs to drown some sorrows!"_

" _Give it back!" Nami demanded, shooting to her feet and jumping to grab at the container._

" _Not a chance, brat! Get your own!" Raijax growled, pushing her away by her forehead with one hand while he tilted his head back and chugged what was left with the other._

" _Stupid shark bastard!"_

" _Bite me, you little brat!"_

 _And so the argument went on through the night, but though the tone was relatively harsh, the heat behind the words was gone._

 **~o~**

"And, well, that was that." Nami smiled nostalgically. "We... weren't openly friends. He was always a bastard to me and I never missed an opportunity to say it to his face, and he always treated me like an ankle-biting brat. But... well, we had each other's backs. His training was brutal, but it was invaluable. I never would have survived to adulthood without it. In return, I helped him cook Arlong's books, changing numbers in the records here and shuffling money around there so that they wouldn't notice that some payments were nonexistent."

A smirk played across her lips. "I... also introduced him to Nojiko and Genzo. That was... quite the experience."

 **~o~**

" _Ow, ow, ow! Damn it you old-! Will you quit hitting me with that swo- GAH! Who the hell-!?"_

" _Get away from my sister!"_

" _I will twist your head clean off your-!"_

" _Touch her and I'll sell you out to Arlong, bastard!"_

" _I'll take you down with me, bra-! GRK! Right in the fucking throat!"_

 **~o~**

Nami snickered slightly at the memory. "Once we managed to smooth things over, they helped Raijax get in contact with other families who needed the help. We couldn't always save everyone, not without risking Arlong's wrath, but we did what we could."

The navigator smiled wistfully as she looked up in thought. "Raijax was... a friendly constant. Someone I could rely on just as much as Nojiko. He was with me through thick and thin..." She suddenly grimaced and clutched her stomach. "No matter how uncomfortable..."

 **~o~**

" _Hey, braaa~aaat," Raijax sung as he rapped his fist on the door to Nami's room. "I'm respecting your privacy by knocking BUT asserting my authority as your superior by coming in anyway!" The sharkman promptly shouldered the door open as loudly as he could. "Sun's up. Dunno why you aren't already in the water, but-GAH!" He cut himself off when he caught sight of Nami lying curled up on the ground, shivering in pain as red coated the floor beneath her. "Brat, what happened?! Are you alright?!"_

" _I..." Nami sobbed miserably. "I-it hurts... and my clothes... I... Raijax, what's-?"_

" _Ah... shit…" Raijax groaned, the blood draining from his face. "I've heard about this, I think. Don't know how to... Eurgh, I'll talk to Nojiko, hopefully she has a clue. In the meantime, you can't just wander around reeking of blood. Let's get you washed up."_

" _T-Thanks, Raij-!" Nami's teary smile froze as Raijax grabbed her by her collar before dropping into a scowl. "Oh_ screw- YEARGH!"

 _SPLASH!_

" _AGH! FUCKING ASSHOLE!"_

" _TEN LAPS AROUND THE ISLAND, BRAT! ANY MORE LIP OUT OF YOU AND I'LL MAKE IT TWENTY!"_

" _GO DROWN IN YOUR OWN BLOOD YOU FISHFACED FUCK!"_

" _YOU WANT ME TO ADD IN MOMOO? I CAN ADD IN MOMOO! I BET HE THINKS YOU SMELL_ DELICIOUS _RIGHT NOW!"_

"BASTARD!"

 **~o~**

"And that was how I spent my first period..." Nami chuckled nervously before her smile dropped slightly. "And my second..." She out and out scowled. "And just about every single one after. As I said: blunt, insensitive ass." Her smile returned a second later. "But through it all, he was _my_ blunt, insensitive ass, and that was all that mattered to me."

"Shishishishi!" Luffy grinned heartily. "It sounds like he was awesome!"

The rest of the crew glanced between each other uncomfortably.

"Except... that it was a good thing in your life, and good things don't last." Sanji stated morosely.

Nami's mood collapsed instantly as she seemed to shrink in on herself, her hands fiercely clenching into fists. "It was a year after he'd joined. It just... seemed like any other day."

 **~o~**

 _Early one morning, a somewhat nervous fishman swam up to one of the underwater caves under Arlong Park, which were being used as living quarters for most of the Pirates, and rapped his fist on the stone wall. Floating back a bit, the fishman settled in for a wait - and promptly wheezed in panic when his windpipe was nearly crushed._

" _They will never find your body." Raijax snarled as he floated over the fishman, lingering fatigue evident in his apoplectically-ticked-off voice._

" _H-Hachi sent me!" The fishman managed to gurgle out, his eyes bulging out of their sockets. "Said he n-needed to talk to you ab-bout somethin'!" Noticing the notably bloodthristy look in the sharkman's eyes, he hastily added, "I-I don't know what about! I'm just the messenger! The messenger!"_

 _Raijax briefly considered doing something_ very _painful to the messenger before deciding to settle matters swiftly so that he could return to sleep. He released the fishman's throat, allowing him to gasp in relief... before shooting his fist out to smash his throat in. "Take solace in the fact that Hachi's going to suffer ten times worse." He growled as he swam past the wheezing fishman._

 _And with that, Raijax swam out of the caverns and climbed up and onto the main plaza of Arlong Park. Coincidentally, he crawled out of the water just as Nami walked out of the kitchen with a plate of breakfast clutched in one hand and a scroll of paper in the other._

" _Well well, what do you know?" she smirked, making sure her voice was pitched as high as it could go. "I didn't think you even knew six in the morning existed."_

 _An animalistic rumble shook Raijax's chest. "Laps."_

" _How many?"_

" _Until you_ drown."

" _Uh huh. Smoked salmon and Loguetown blend, right?"_

" _Until your arms and legs feel like they're going to fall off."_

" _Hmm..." Nami made a show of considering. "Tempting... but no dice." She shook the paper she was holding. "Arlong wants the maps of the South Blue done by noon or else, and he scares me more than you ever could."_

 _Raijax cocked an eyebrow. "Really? Let me see."_

 _Nami shrugged, shifting her grip on the paper so that she was holding it by its edge as she shook it out, allowing it to unfold._

 _Raijax knelt down and analyzed the array of lines that covered the paper before huffing in awe. "Well, I'll be damned. It's legible. Not bad... for a little brat like you."_

 _Nami rolled her eyes as she rolled the paper up. "Whatever you say, bastard."_

 _Raijax huffed out a rough chuckle as he stood up and walked towards the main building. "Twice as many laps tonight before bed, brat."_

" _Yeah, yeah..." Nami chuckled as she turned back towards the kitchen. Raijax entered the building before she did..._

 _CRACK! "GAH!"_

 _And suddenly shot back out without warning, tumbling head over heels across the stone. Landing flat on his face, he came to a skidding halt, he groaning in pain. Shaking his head, he tried to push himself up and reclaim his sense of direction._

 _Nami stared at the scene, blinking in numb shock as Raijax worked his way onto one of his feet. "What...?"_

 _SMACK! "ARGH!"_

 _The sharkman promptly wound up on his knees, dry-heaving from the force of the savage kick that suddenly plowed into his stomach._

 _The plate of food shattered as it slipped out of Nami's suddenly dead hands. The girl barely even noticed, transfixed with the horror show playing out before her, much like most of the rest of the Pirates slowly trickling into the area._

" _Did you really think your ploy would last forever, Raijax?" Arlong demanded, his voice thick with frigid fury as he and his lieutenants encircled the shark's prone form. "Did you think that you were smarter than me?"_

 _While Raijax gasped and tried to get some air back into his lungs, the rest of the crew watched with equal amounts of fear and curiosity, slowly starting to crowd around their leaders. Nami was among them, shoving and slipping her way through the crowd so that she was at the edge of the scene. However, as horrified as she was by the events, she made certain to school her expression to not show any more concern or worry than was strictly necessary._

 _Just because Raijax was a friend - if an abrasive friend whose guts she hated - didn't mean she could let her guard down. All it took was one overzealous fishman... and then she and everyone she cared about would suffer._

" _H-how...?" Raijax finally managed to gasp out._

" _Torume Village." Arlong leered, his fangs set in an ear-to-ear scowl. "They're dead, by the way, or at least they will be very soon. Momoo should be finishing up by now. Fat lot of good your fucking pity," he let loose with another kick, causing Raijax to grunt in pain as it hit his abused ribs. "Did them. Still... recycling money to make it look like taxes were being paid for? Smart."_

 _Arlong's eyes narrowed as he delivered another kick, this one to the side of the sharkman's head, causing it to snap it to the side as his eyes unfocused slightly. "Too smart. You're not stupid, Raijax, but you're not smart enough for this. You had help. Tell me who else betrayed me, and I'll let you leave this island alive. Crippled, but alive."_

 _At that, Raijax slowly froze, his eyes darting back and forth in thought. Finally, he slowly raised his head... and locked eyes with Nami. For the briefest moment, Nami's breath hitched, her heart stopping in her chest._ 'No...' _she pleaded silently, begged really._ 'Please, no...' _._

 _In a way, her terror wasn't unfounded. Before anyone could react, Raijax lashed out with an arm, driving Arlong back a step. The opening was just enough to allow him to half scramble, half leap at Nami. The next thing anyone knew, Raijax had his hands locked around her shoulders and a foot planted in the middle of her back._

" _AGH!" She shrieked in pain, her shoulders screaming in agony from the unnatural angle. "L-LET ME-ERGH!" She was cut off by Raijax giving her limbs a painful wrench._

" _Shut. Up." He snarled murderously, his voice rolling over both her and the dumbstruck pirates. "Make one wrong move... one thing I don't like... And I'll rip her arms clear off her body. She'll never draw another map or chart again."_

 _Nami froze in terror, staring over her shoulder at her 'erstwhile' teacher. Everything about him screamed that he was deadly serious... except for the way he was rhythmically clenching and unclenching his hands. A signal he'd taught her while teaching her how to freedive. 'Get ready, get ready, get ready,' it was all that was keeping her from hysteria._

" _You really think we'd believe this?" Kuroobi scoffed in disbelief. "That after all you've done for humans, you'd hurt one to save your own sorry hide? Your own student no less?"_

" _Most other humans?"Raijax nodded slowly. "Yeah, you're right, I wouldn't. But her?" Nami winced as Raijax tugged on her arms again, threatening to dislocate both her shoulders at once. "She's different. I can threaten her because I know that if I hurt her, I'll be doing some damn good. She dies, she loses what makes her valuable, and the glorious Arlong Empire dies before it can even see the light of day. So yeah... I'm willing to hurt her."_

 _Nami's breath hitched violently as she stared up at him. "Raijax... Raijax,_ please-HRK!" _She was cut off by yet another yank. In the process, however, he squeezed her arms twice in swift succession. 'Now.' She blinked in confusion as she noticed that the sharkman was focusing on something. What was he-?_

 _Out of the blue, a pair of Water Bullets shot into Raijax's hands, causing him to howl in pain as he released Nami. The girl only had a second to react, but that agonizing second was enough for her to make out her mind. Putting her training to use, she snapped out the thirds of the collapsible bo-staff Raijax had given her so long ago, assembled it, and rammed it into an exposed section of his throat before running away, merging into the edge of the crowd. Apart from one or two sidelong glances, no one paid her any mind._

 _Arlong's smirk returned full force as he took a menacing step forwards, his arms spread wide in a taunting manner. "Well well well. Congratulations for putting on a good show, but I'm afraid it's time to bring this charade to an end." And almost immediately his mood flipped, a scowl dominating his expression. "Why do this, Raijax? You, more than anyone, should understand why humans are such pathetic creatures. Why they deserve our hatred! You should hate them even more than I!"_

 _Raijax huffed furiously as he nursed his hands, shaking his head darkly as he glared at the monster before him. "I don't hate the humans who did this to me, Arlong. I hate the_ people _who did this to me. There's a difference. I hate_ people _like them. People who hate others for who they are, people who find some kind of sick, twisted satisfaction in the pain of others. They're the only ones who I hate in the world. And you know what? After a year living under your roof, I can say it with certainty: I despise you Arlong. You, and everything you stand for."_

 _Every muscle in Arlong's body went taut like a line of steel, outrage radiating from his body like heat from the sun. "What I stand for?_ What I stand for!?" _He spread his arms wide as he indicated the park. "I am the RAGE of the fishmen! Of our people!_ Your _rage,_ your _anger! I will_ burn _this ocean to the ground, and turn it into a utopia! My Empire will be a heaven, for us, and all our kind!"_

 _Raijax's breathing hitched as he bowed his head and began to shake, harder and harder. The Pirates stared at him in confusion... until they heard it: Laughter. Thick, dark, nihilistic laughter that bubbled out of Raijax's throat like tar. "Heaven?" He gasped, glaring at Arlong in amused disbelief. "_ Heaven!? HA! _You call yourself the rage of the fishmen, but that rage has_ blinded _you to the facts! You call this a heaven for us, a way for us to escape that_ hell," _he spat the word, swinging his arms out over the Park. "But the whole time I've been here, the whole entire time, I never_ once _left it! I've been living in hell all over again, Arlong!"_

 _He jabbed an accusing finger at Arlong, his eyes filled with unholy rage and condemnation. "This whole time... Fisher Tiger might have helped free me from hell, Arlong, but you lead me right back into it. The only difference... is that I've been standing on the other side of the glass. Forced to rub shoulders with the_ devils. _"_

 _Arlong's body went rigid with abject fury, his entire body shaking like a volcano on the verge of eruption. "You're. Going. To die." He finally grit out, every word loaded with enough venom to give the infamous Warden Magellan a run for his money. "And I'm going to make certain it's slow."_

 _Raijax hesitated slightly, ever so slightly for a moment... before his eyes filled with determination. "Someday, Arlong..." Raijax nodded in agreement, his arms rising up to the hide of his mouth. "Someday, I will." His faceguard clicked off its straps, clanging on the ground. "But not today."_

 _And before anyone knew what was happening, one hand snapped to his nosecone and ripped the metal off, while the other pressed beneath his nose, smearing blood all over his nostrils._

 _For a moment, he stood there, unmoving. Then his nose twitched. His pupils shrank to pinpricks for an instant before dilating to consume his eyes entirely. He stood up to his full height, and_ roared _, a deep, beastial howl that shook the Park and sent a few fishmen on the edges scurrying._

 _Leaning down again, his body parallel to the ground, his eyes locked onto Arlong. Letting out another roar, the sharkman charged headlong at the other fishman. Kuroobi and Hatchan made to grab him, but were tossed away like so many ragdolls by a successive pair of effortless shoulder checks. Arlong barely had time to brace himself before Raijax crashed into him, picking him up off the ground as he kept running, demolishing the throne and sending them both through the wall into the main building._

 _Though no one present had the courage to follow the two, the bestial howls, the grinding of teeth on stone, and repeated crashes of shattering stone, wood, glass, and bone told the story just fine. The tension in the crowd was entirely too thick for a knife to cut as fishman and human alike waited for an outcome. They did not have to wait long._

 _Several fishmen yelped in surprise as Raijax came flying out of Arlong Park through the wall, leaving a Raijax-shaped hole behind. Several fishmen were clipped by the shark as he sailed through the air, hit the ground, and skipped like a stone on a river before landing in the water. The three officers, to their credit only hesitating for a few seconds, made to go after him._

" _STOP!"_

 _Until Arlong's order stopped them from moving._

" _Don't go in after him!" Arlong barked, his voice equal parts desperate and outraged as he ran out of the building, thoroughly beaten and bloody. He had his Shark Saw slung over one shoulder, while his other held a belt full of cutlasses that he hastily tossed to Hatchan. "Everyone get away from the water!"_

 _Hatchan blinked in confusion as he fumbled to catch the swords. "Huh? B-but why sir?! Shouldn't we-!?"_

 _SPLASH! "AAAAGH!"_

 _The octo-swordsman's question was interrupted by a scream of terror from a fishman near the water as a hand shot out from beneath the waves and grabbed his leg, crushing his ankle before yanking him in. The water thrashed and frothed for a moment... before erupting into a fountain of red._

 _Hatchan promptly began scrambling to yank his swords out of their sheathes in a blind panic. The crowd of fishmen, meanwhile, which had been slowly edging towards the water for a better view, promptly scrambled away as fast as they could._

 _Once the waters calmed down, a moment of silence dominated the park until a familiar fin peeked out of the water, slowly cutting through the bay towards the open ocean._

 _The Pirates allowed themselves a moment to sigh a collective sigh of relief... until the fin stopped at the gate out starting to slowly circle round and around._

 _Arlong heaved the Saw Blade off his shoulder and held it at the ready, his knuckles white on the hilt. "Everyone out. Now."_

 _Without warning, the fin turned right around and sped towards the shore so fast that it left a wake of waves and foam._

" _NOW!" Arlong roared._

 _The fishmen immediately began scrambling for the land entrance to the Park, one of them stopping to grab Nami and sling her over his shoulder. She didn't protest; she couldn't move in the least, her entire body freezing up entirely._

 _Unfortunately, in the process, he had put Nami's head over her shoulder, allowing her a full, unabated view as..._ something _leapt out of the water, howling its fury at the world to the high heavens._

 **~o~**

"So that was the last time you saw him, huh?" Franky mused sadly.

" _No."_

The crew froze and stared at Nami in shock as she snarled at the Cyborg, a spike of rage cutting through her sorrow.

"That was _not_ Raijax." She hissed through her tears. "That... that _thing_ was not him. I-I-I don't know what it was. A monster, a-a beast that was living in him, a... a _demon..._ I don't know. I don't know and _I don't care_. Whatever that thing was... it... it wasn't him. That _thing_ didn't teach me how to fight, how to survive. That _thing_ didn't cover me with a blanket, whenever I fell asleep at my desk, or bring me food or... or..." She slapped a hand over her mouth as she hunched forwards, sobs racking her body.

She was drawn out of misery by a hand landing on her shoulder. Then another on her back, another on her knee... eight in all.

Each and every one of the Straw Hats stood around her, letting her know, one way or another, that they were there. That they would always be there

Finally, Nami managed to wrestle control of herself and sit up, hiccuping as she wiped at her eyes. "Thank you..." She whispered.

"If you can't go on..." Robin offered.

Nami shook her head firmly. "No... no, I... can finish." She took a steadying breath before continuing. "We... we went back to the park... about an hour later. When the... the _noises_ stopped."

 **~o~**

 _Arlong Park was still standing... for a generous definition of the word 'standing'. The base of operations looked as though it had been swept over by a hurricane. Chew, Kuroobi and Hatchan were collapsed on various piles of rubble, their bodies wrecked and completely and utterly drained of energy and huffing in an effort to regain their breath. Meanwhile, Arlong was sitting hunched forwards on what remained of his throne, grievously injured but still alive. The Shark Saw was firmly lodged in the overhang above him._

 _While the fishmen stared at the devastation in numb shock, Nami managed to mask any and all emotions with an expression of terror before speaking. "Is... is he...?"_

 _Nami's heart leapt as Arlong slowly shook his head, grinding his teeth murderously. "No... no, that... that_ thing _is still alive. He ran when some part of him realized that he was going to die if he fought any longer." The sawshark fishman slowly forced his way to his feet and addressed his crew. "Get this mess cleaned up. And keep a lookout. No telling when he'll be back..."_

 _The fishmen obliged immediately, dispersing and swarming over the wreckage in an effort to restore some form of normalcy, as well as lending aid to their leaders._

 _In the midst of the madness, Nami stood still, moving slightly out of the way as her mind raced, searching for something,_ anything _that she could do. And finally, she hit on it._

 _Acting fast, she ran up to Hatchan and tugged on what was left of his pants to get his attention. "I'm going to stay at Nojiko's until everything's back to normal." She informed him._

 _Hatchan groaned and waved two of his hands dismissively, a third kneading the bridge of his nose._

 _And with that, Nami ran out of the devastated Park as fast as she could_

 _ **-o-**_

 _Brush and foliage crackled and snapped underfoot as Nami rushed through the growths, heedless of the scratches she was receiving as she darted ahead, urging herself to move faster and faster._

 _Finally, she broke out of the vegetation, catching sight of her destination... and her goal, standing on the lip of the cliff just beyond the cross._

" _RAIJAX!" she screamed, heedless of whoever might be able to hear her._

 _The sharkman snapped around, staring at her with equal parts sorrow and terror. He looked..._ awful _. Blood seemed to seep from every pore of his body, his skin practically a sieve it was so full of holes and gashes. His mouth was missing a wide array of teeth, his jawbones visibly shifting as their replacements slowly forced their way out of the hardened calcium. One of his forearms was twisted at an angle that no species would consider healthy, and his left eye was pink with the blood swimming within. The only small mercy about him was how his nosecone appeared to have returned to its previous position, although it appeared to be harshly crammed into place._

 _Tears brimmed in Raijax's eyes as he stared at the girl, thick, bloody streams of saltwater rolling down his cheeks. He opened and shut his mouth helplessly, struggling to say something,_ anything... _but nothing came out. The sharkman slowly staggered backwards, his heel slipping on the very edge of the cliff as he ran out of land. He snapped his gaze behind him, staring down into the ocean, before darting his gaze at Nami and back._

 _Nami's blood froze. "No..." She staggered forwards. "No no no, Raijax, don't, please_ don't-!"

 _Raijax glanced at her another time, his jaws moving. Nami couldn't tell what he said... but his eyes spoke enough._

"I'm sorry."

 _And with that, he spun around and dove off the cliff._

" _NO!" Nami screamed, running to where he'd been and staring into the ocean, raking it for any sign of her friend, any sign whatsoever. "RAIJAX! RAIJAX, PLEASE, COME BACK! DON'T GO!_ RAIJAX! _"_

 _But no matter how loud she screamed and or how desperately she pleaded... the girl received no answer._

" _DON'T LEAVE ME! PLEASE! RAIJAX!"_

 _Finally... Nami collapsed to her knees, curling into a ball as her body shook with sobs._

" _Don't leave me..." She choked out._

" _Raijax..."_

 **~o~**

"And _that_ was the last I saw of him." Nami concluded somberly. "I... I searched everywhere for him when I could, but... with his injuries, and the state he was in... The way Arlong was hunting him... I..." She swallowed heavily. "I had no clue as to whether or not he was alive."

She raised her hands in a hopeless shrug. "After that... Raijax's name became taboo in the Park. Any mention of him was harshly reprimanded, Arlong forced me to work harder than ever, and I... I just buried myself. In stealing from pirates, in map making, in Nojiko and the grove and Cocoyashi and... all of it. I blocked everything out. Everything to do with Raijax, every memory of him, every instant he was a part of my life, I just..." She shook her head firmly. "It was too painful. I... didn't want to deal with it anymore, so I chose not to. I... didn't. I didn't even know I was doing it until I saw him again on the Sunny."

"And now..." Her hands tightened into fists, her fingernails digging into her palms. "Now I know that he's alive. He's alive, and hurt and scared and out of his mind with rage and... and..." Her voice hitched as she bit her lip and bowed her head. "He... he _remembers_ me..."

Silence reigned for a moment as the Straw Hats processed all of this, allowing it to properly sink in.

Finally, Nami spoke up once more.

"Luffy..." She croaked.

Her captain knelt before her, staring at her blankly.

"Two years ago... you saved my home. My friends, my family, everyone and everything I ever cared about... because I asked you for help."

Luffy nodded firmly. "Yup."

"Then in that case..." Nami hiccupped. "I guess there's only one thing to do..."

Nami looked up at her captain, tears streaming down her face as she sobbed.

"Please..." She begged him. "Save Raijax. Save... my friend..."

Luffy was silent, his face unreadable as he watched her.

Finally...

He reached up, took off his hat, and settled it firmly on her head.

Nami choked out a joy-choked sob as she launched herself forwards, clutching onto her captain for all she was worth and burying her face in his shoulder.

Over her shoulder, Luffy met the gazes of his crewmates.

Zoro huffed, but he undid his bandanna from his arm and tied it over his head nonetheless.

Sanji bit into a cigarette and lit it, ashing half of it in a single, definitive drag.

Usopp barely even hesitated, smirking as he shot his captain a thumb's up with his good hand.

Chopper swallowed heavily, shaking his head in an effort to clear it before biting his lip and nodding firmly.

Robin didn't move an inch, but the way her eyes sharpened said enough.

Franky fell into a pose, his expression deadly serious as he slammed his forearms together above his head.

Brook's teeth were grit together so hard they were in danger of chipping as the musical swordsman tightened his grip on his cane.

Luffy nodded with finality, reaffirming his grip on Nami.

"Okay."

And that, as they say, was that.

 **A.N. Kudos to CV12Hornet, his aid was invaluable with this chapter, and all the others**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Once Nami calmed down, she started pacing back and forth before the front of the crew, fingers rubbing her chin in thought. "Alright, first things first. Sanji, can you tell where Raijax is?"

The cook closed his eyes and concentrated for a second before sighing out a cloud of smoke. "He's about a mile underground and climbing towards us fast. He'll probably get out by sundown. And he's..." His eyes snapped open in shock. "Almost completely recovered!? It's only been ten minutes! How can someone get back from one of my kicks, Luffy's Rifle and a freaking _cave-in_ that fast !?"

"Because you barely did any damage to him to begin with." Nami sighed heavily.

"He coughed up _blood!"_ Usopp protested.

"Once. He coughed up blood _once."_ The navigator clarified. "And that was most likely on account of the initial impact. It'll have healed by now."

Usopp swallowed heavily as a cold sweat broke out on his brow. "You... can't be serious."

Nami shook her head solemnly. "Let's be clear on this: Raijax didn't just shoot through to the top of Arlong's ranks because of a sob story, no matter how true or tragic it was. He rose through the ranks because he was stronger, meaner, and, above all, _tougher_ than anyone on the crew short of the lieutenants and Arlong himself, and of those four only Kuroobi was willing to meet him head on in a fight. Even _then_ he was seriously reluctant. The _entire_ reason Arlong lured him into an ambush was so that he could catch him before he had so much as a chance to prepare himself, because otherwise he _wasn't confident he could stun him_."

The redhead held two of her fingers apart. "His skin is about two inches thick, so good luck getting him to so much as feel anything without some serious force behind it. He can brute force his way past a lot of stone with little to no effort, and when he's in the water he's ungodly fast and strong."

Her mood darkened as she crossed her arms over her chest. "And that's when he _isn't_ out of his mind with rage. I wasn't able to learn a _lot_ , but from what I managed to get out of Hachi when he was drunk out of his mind, his sense of pain is _completely_ shot. Also, as you saw, his intellect is cut down to a quarter, if that, but his instincts are running completely on overdrive, making him a lot more vicious. There's also the fact that he's obviously gotten stronger since the last time I saw him, because he could _not_ use Haki seven years ago."

She clapped her hands together with finality. "In short, think of him as a smaller, faster, smarter, and more _vicious_ version of Oars."

As one, the entire crew, sans Luffy, shuddered. Fighting Oars had _not_ been a pleasant experience for any of them, and that version had been huge, slow and stupid. This... would be _worse_ than 'not pleasant'.

"I think I might have an idea on how we can beat him," Zoro finally offered.

Nami looked at him with wary curiosity. "Alright, I'll bite... what?"

"Alright... What if, hypothetically speaking, I cut his limbs off and we tied him down? Then Chopper could sew them back on later."

Silence reigned over the crew as they processed the idea.

Finally, Nami smiled serenely as she tilted her head to the side, the picture of innocence. "Well, if you were to do that, then, hypothetically speaking, from that day forwards, I would crush your testicles with my Clima-Tact every time you went to sleep until the day you died."

Zoro's eye shot wide with terror, and it was all the rest of the ship's male crew could do to keep from shrieking as Nami turned her suddenly terrifying smile on them.

"The same goes for any of you who seriously maim him. Just so we're clear." She chirped.

The men hastily shuffled as far away from the navigator as they could manage, legs crossed for safety.

"I-I don't even have any balls left, and I'm still scared!" Brook stuttered.

Zoro shivered heavily before glancing at Sanji. "Let me guess: 'Nami-swan' is beautiful even when she's threatening our manhoods?"

Sanji swallowed heavily as he stared at the woman of his dreams with abject horror. "No, this time I think she's just flat out terrifying."

Franky whimpered as he clamped his intact hand over his privates. "This is bringing up some SUPER uncomfortable memories..."

Robin chuckled at the display. "My my, Nami, it would seem you're showing some hidden depths."

Nami cocked an eyebrow at Robin. "And what would you do if you found yourself in a position similar to mine?"

Robin blinked, cupped her chin in thought... then slowly turned her head to _smile_ at the crew.

Franky let out a strangled sob. "Those memories just became a whole lot worse!"

Chopper hastily rallied his courage and waved his hoof in the air in an effort to garner Nami's attention. "N-Nami, could you describe the symptoms and causes of Raijax's condition to me? Maybe I can diagnose it and help form a strategy."

Nami blinked as she was jolted out of her serene rage before nodding in agreement. "Uh... sure, sure. Well..." She tapped her chin in thought. "I think one of the big thing I remember is that he could handle _tasting_ blood. To an extent, anyways. He occasionally ate rare meat, but he never used his teeth in a fight, unlike a lot of shark fishmen. He was only ever really dedicated to keeping his nose and throat covered, _that_ he did religiously. Beyond that... Dilated pupils, loss of intellect, lowered pain response..." She snapped her fingers. "Oh, right! His veins: they were like a city map they were bulging so much, so his blood pressure must have been through the roof. Does any of that help?"

Chopper hummed thoughtfully as he himself started to pace. "It... _sounds_ like he's being forced into a feeding frenzy. It's a common ecological occurrence where animals go mad from either numerous predators fighting over the same prey or, more likely in this case, one predator being overwhelmed by the amount of prey available. It launches them into an attack-first, think-later mentality, where they can be prone to attacking even other predators. If had to guess, I'd say that his adrenal glands went into overdrive, pushing his body beyond its normal limits, not unlike my Monster Point. I... can't explain why the smell of so little blood would force him into a frenzy though..."

Nami only had to think for a moment before biting her lip uncomfortably. "What... if past trauma caused him to overwhelmingly associate the smell of blood with a frenzy?"

Chopper considered this for a moment before nodding slowly. "I... suppose that could do it." He brightened up as a thought struck him. "Then in that case, once he stops smelling blood, he should slowly come down from the hormone high and come back to his senses!"

"So you mean we _don't_ need to fight the bloodthirsty sharkman?" Usopp asked hopefully.

The more savvy crewmates exchanged uncomfortable glances.

"Uh... not quite, bro." Franky winced."

Luffy blinked in confusion. "Huh? How come?"

Zoro sighed and shook his head in exasperation. "Remember how that bastard-?" THWACK! "OUCH!"

"Only _I_ get to call him that." Nami snarled, tapping her Clima-Tact in her hand.

Zoro growled in irritation as he rubbed his skull. "Damn witch... As I was saying, remember how he smelled blood in the first place?"

"Um..." Chopper racked his memory. "Sanji... broke his nose?"

"Yes," Sanji groaned as he ran his hand through his hair. "I broke it, so there's blood in his nose... caught behind his _airtight nosecone."_

"Raijax's nose is _clogged_ with blood." Nami lamented. "And once it clots... He wasn't just _forced_ into a frenzy, he's _locked_ in it. He _can't_ come down from his high naturally."

Chopper paled beneath his fur. "That's... that's not good. Not good _at all!"_ He waved his hooves frantically. "That comparison I made to Monster Point is a _lot_ more accurate now, dangerously so! He has to be burning energy at an exponential rate, one his body won't be able to handle! Unless we bring him down from his high, then his heart runs a very serious risk of failing! And that's not even mentioning the _rest_ of his organs!"

Nami tensed instantly. "What are our options?" She demanded. "Can't you... I don't know, tranquilize him or something?"

The reindeer hastily ran a few numbers before shaking his head. "The way his body is running, I suspect that he'd just burn anything I injected him with out of his system. I could _try,_ but... I'd risk overcompensating and causing an overdose."

The navigator desperately swept her gaze over her crew. "Any _other_ ideas?"

None of the Straw Hats dared either speak or move for a minute as they desperately racked their brains. Finally, Brook hesitantly raised a hand. "At the risk of wholly justified physical abuse, may I suggest putting Zoro's idea into consideration?"

Nami opened her mouth... and promptly felt a spike of panic as she caught herself contemplating saying _yes._

Thankfully, she was broken out of her thoughts by something far, far more terrifying.

Four words. Just four, simple words that froze the hearts of the crew as solid as ice.

"I've got a plan."

In unison, each member of the Straw Hats turned to their grim-faced captain; some of them bore faces frozen with wide eyes and forced smiles, while others kept their expressions very firmly neutral. All of them, however, had cold, cold sweat starting to pool on their skin.

On that day, the Straw Hat Pirates stared at their captain and knew, _knew_ the very definition of fear.

 **-o-**

A few hours later, the sun set and the moon rose over the island of Kayaku. Darkness fell over the island like a thick blanket, shadows stretching over and dominating so much of the land that one could be forgiven for checking over their shoulders for Gecko Moria, or even Marshall D. Teach himself.

These conditions only served to accentuate the horror of the moment as the rocks that blocked the entrance to the island's cave system started to shift and tumble, an internal force acting upon them.

After a few seconds, the rocks erupted outwards as Raijax's monstrous form shoved its way up and out of the devastated entryway, howling his fury at the moon for all the world to hear.

The sharkman huffed and snarled as he clawed his way out of the loose stones, barely even noticing as a number of gashes were rent in his skin, some even deep enough to elicit a small trickle of blood. Raijax staggered to his feet and slowly searched the surroundings, his eyes taking in what they could: some trampled grass here and there, but apart from that, nothing. Out of some ingrained natural habit, he tilted his head back and attempted to take a whiff of the air. The resultant scent caused him to roar and snarl once anew as his mind flooded with crimson.

Raijax growled and huffed as his head whipped around with renewed vigor, searching for something, anything, _anything_ he could attack. Anything he could _hurt._

Suddenly, he froze and snapped his head around, staring at the distance.

There, on the horizon, was a plume of smoke rising into the heavens, with a flickering light at the bottom.

Just enough neurons managed to fire in Raijax's blood-addled brain to make the leap from smoke to fire, from fire to people, and from people... to _food._

With a final roar, Raijax charged forwards, devouring the land with ground-eating strides in an effort to reach his goal. His _food._

 **-o-**

Barely even an hour later, Raijax skidded down into the old town with all the subtlety of a rampaging sea king, snarling and snapping furiously as he sought out his targets.

Unfortunately (for the sharkman, at any rate), there didn't appear to be any targets immediately available. The streets of the village laid completely barren, void of any and all forms of life.

Raijax huffed and growled in frustration as he whipped his head around in a desperate bid to find someone, _anyone_ he could tear into. Unfortunately, the reflexive sniff he took did _very_ little to help his mentality. As it was, the stench of blood merely whipped his frenzy into a froth of pure outrage, driving his sanity up the walls...

And him right through the door of the nearest house, roaring and snapping furiously at-

SNAP!

A chair.

Raijax blinked blearily in dulled confusion for a second before coughing and hacking, spitting out the splinters of wood that peppered his maw. The well and truly incensed fishman snarled and whipped his head around, but to his confusion and even more immense frustration, there was nobody present.

Oh, there were signs that somebody had been there, the still-warm food set on the table attested to that, but there was nobody present to eat it. It was as if they'd simply... vanished into thin air.

Raijax huffed and coughed, his basal ganglia trying to formulate a valid response before following the most logical course of action.

And thus, without further ado, he turned a tight ninety degrees and smashed through the wall of the house and clean into the next one over. Upon realizing that this house was empty as well, he then proceeded to power through to the next one.

Then the next one. And the next and the next...

After about a dozen houses, Raijax had finally had enough and smashed out into the street, howling and roaring at anything and everything, a singular notion in his mind:

Where the _fucking hell_ _**was everyone!?**_

 **-o-**

"How's everyone doing, Polly?" Nami asked as she sat down next to the mayor.

The pseudo-pirate sighed and shrugged tiredly as he looked over the several dozen people gathered before him. "Arr, a little shaken up, aye, but overall they be fine. Better to be hiding in the forest than torn to shreds by a blood-starved beasty." His smile softened a tad as he turned his gaze to watch a small mass of children 'ooh' and 'aah' at the wild gesticulations and exaggerated words of a certain long-nosed sniper. "At least yer friend be good at distractin' the young'uns."

Nami nodded slightly in agreement before pausing, biting her lip and hanging her head with a sigh. "Polly... I... we're-"

"Ahhh, cram it up your bilge hole!" Polly scoffed as he waved her off. "We be needin' no apologies, lass. Ye be the Straw Hat Pirates! Ye never do _anything_ normally. 'Twas me own fault fer not expecting _something_ to go barnacle-side up. But," he shrugged carelessly. "So be it."

Nami blinked in confusion. "Just... like that?"

The mayor shot her a cocky grin. "As I said, ye be the Straw Hats. As mad as everything might become, ye'll make things right eventually. I just know it."

Nami opened her mouth before slowly closing it and nodding in agreement. "I... yeah. Sure." She lapsed into uncomfortable silence.

Polly stared at her morosely for a moment before opening his coat and pulling out a bottle of rum. "Here." He proffered it to the navigator.

Nami stared at it bemusedly. "Uh..."

"The Scourge be a dear old matey of yers who's in danger, aye?"

The navigator tensed. but nodded slowly nevertheless.

"Then ye be needing the more than I."

Nami hesitated slightly at that before sighing heavily and taking the bottle, uncorking it with her teeth... then handing it back. "Thanks, but no thanks. I don't need it."

"Aye?" Polly cocked an eyebrow as he took the bottle back.

Nami smirked in agreement. "Aye. I don't need liquid luck. After all..." She looked up at the stars with a confident smile. "Luffy's going to save him. And that's a fact."

"Har har har!" Polly cackled as he took a hit from the bottle. "Fair enough, lass, fair enough."

 **-o-**

Raijax gnashed his teeth furiously as he stomped down the streets of Kayaku. Empty. His blunted mind reeled and raged at the very notion. The entire _town, EMPTY!_ It wasn't _right!_ He _needed_ to find someone, _needed_ to _tear into flesh!_ _Needed to eat, slaughter, kill! Needed to,_ _ **needed to, NEEDED TO!**_

Suddenly, a ray of light burst through his haze. Literally, actually, on account of light reflecting off of a window right in front of him.

Raijax blinked and flinched away from the glare, rubbing his eye in pain. Once he managed to clear it though, he took stock of his surroundings: the pillar of smoke that had drawn him to town in the first place was but a few buildings away. Raijax blinked at it slowly before his brain reiterated an earlier connection: smoke meant fire, and fire meant prey. Surely there had to be _someone_ there.

And on that train of thought, Raijax made his way through the buildings until he reached a large plaza, where, burning in the exact center, there was a large bonfire constructed from dried driftwood. A large, _unattended_ bonfire.

Raijax snarled and shook with fury as he took slow, deliberate steps towards the fire. This... was starting to become _seriously_ infuriating. Either Raijax sunk his fangs into _someone_ soon, or else... _or else..._

" _-ohohoho-!"_

Raijax snapped his head around and blinked in confusion. Did he just hear someone laughing? And where did that plume of dust come-?

Raijax blinked when he suddenly lurched forwards and fell flat on his face, his legs becoming non-responsive without warning. The sharkman grunted and attempted to move his lower limbs, but was merely rewarded with the sound of crackling and snapping. Growling in irritation, Raijax braced his hands on the ground-

"Cien Fleur: Dos Mano!"

\- And promptly snarled and flailed madly as a pair of massive weights pressed down on him from his sides, preventing him from moving.

"Now!" A feminine voice called out.

"ON IT, HACCHA!"

Suddenly, a blur of brown flipped through the air, landing in front of Raijax... before promptly tripping and landing flat on its face.

"Ouch... stupid seawater..."

Raijax howled and snarled as he lunged forwards at the thing before him, snapping wildly both at it and the two large somethings pressing down on his shoulders. With a great deal of twisting, he managed to bite down into _something..._ and roared in fury when all he was rewarded with was a mouthful of petals.

"Ergh-! Hurry Chopper, I don't know how much longer I can hold him!"

"R-RIGHT, HACCHA!" Chopper barked, springing to his hooves and darting forwards. Dodging around Raijax's teeth, he slammed one hoof up beneath the sharkman's chin, pinning his bottom jaw shut, while his other hoof shot up to his nose and clamped onto the cone of metal.

"READY, HOCCHA?!"

"On your mark!"

"ONE! TWO! _THREE, HEEYAH!"_

Chopper flung himself backwards at the exact same time that Robin's gargantuan hands yanked Raijax away. Chopper's iron grip, combined with Robin's compounded strength, was more than sufficient to tear the slightly warped cone of metal from Raijax's nose, dried mass of blood and all.

The positive side of this was that Raijax's nose was now free of the blood, allowing him a _chance_ to smell fresh air.

On the _other_ hand...

Raijax bellowed and thrashed furiously, the fountain of fresh blood cascading from the freshly opened wounds in his nostrils reinvigorating his body and all but quadrupling his strength.

"I... can't- _GAH!"_

With a final, _massive_ heave, the hands pinning Raijax crumpled and vanished, allowing the predator to howl his freedom to the heavens.

"Chopper, _run!"_

"RIGH- _YAAGH!"_ The reindeer cried out in panic as, in the midst of spinning on his hoof, he slipped on the road and faceplanted once anew. "I _HATE_ SEAWATER!" he yelled.

Raijax growled murderously as he stalked towards the mass of venison, his jaws parted eagerly, ready to sink them into his meal.

"Hey, fishbrain!"

The enraged predator swung around at the vaguely familiar voice, ready to lunge... and was met with a large hand clamping down over his face and raising him up into the air.

"Remember me?" Franky smirked, using his injured hand to prop up his inflated forearm. "COUP DE VENT!"

And with a blast of compressed gale-force winds, Raijax's flailing, howling form was sent soaring over the village's roofs.

"Oh my, what an arc! I'd applaud you for it... but I don't have any skin! Yohohoho! Skull joke!"

"That was kinda weak, bro."

"Ah well, they can't all be gems."

 **-o-**

Zoro tapped his foot on the dock impatiently as he stared into the sky, searching impatiently for his target. "Come on, will they just hurry it up already?"

"He'll get here when he gets here, shit swordsman." Sanji huffed as he puffed on his cigarette.

Zoro glanced at the cook in annoyance for a moment before resuming his vigil. "So, what's your end of the bargain on this?"

Sanji snarled furiously at the swordsman. "I would never ask for payment from my dear Nami-swan, especially for something like this!"

Zoro slowly turned his head to give the cook a one-eyed _look._

Sanji coughed uncomfortably as he looked away with a slight blush. "Though I will admit I became a lot more open to this part of the plan once Nami promised me a one-on-one candlelight dinner once this is all over and done with." He shot his own glare at Zoro. "What about you, mosshead?"

Zoro grit his teeth as he glared at the sky. "She's going to be cutting my debt in half."

Sanji melted into a whirlwind. "Ah, Nami-Swan's beautiful generosity shines through as always!"

 _That_ elicited a snort from Zoro. "Hardly. It just means that now there's a possibility I'll have it paid off by the time I'm old and senile. Damn witch..."

Sanji was suddenly engulfed in flames as he rounded on Zoro. "LISTEN HERE, MOSS-!"

Then, as swiftly as he flared up, Sanji extinguished himself in favor of looking up at the sky. "Showtime." He drawled, sticking his leg out.

"Yup." Zoro grunted, hopping onto and crouching on the leg as he slipped Shusui out of his sash, sheath and all. Notably, while it appeared normal, the sheath bore a bandaged lump in the middle of its length. "When you're ready."

Sanji chewed on his cigarette tentatively as he stared at the sky, calculating and flexing and unflexing his leg tentatively. Finally, he reeled his leg back and tensed furiously, an action that Zoro mirrored. "Armée de L'Air..." He growled beneath his breath before lunging forwards and swinging his leg out with as much power as he could muster. "POWER SHOOT!"

Zoro shot off the cook's leg like a cannonball, soaring straight at Raijax's futilely struggling form as the sharkman plummeted towards the docks.

The swordsman narrowed his eye as he held his arm out at the ready. "One Sword Style," he muttered, flexing his bicep and causing it to bulk up to twice its original size. "One Gorilla!"

Once Zoro was within a foot of Raijax's flailing fangs, he swung his arm and _slammed_ his sheath into the side of the sharkman's head, hitting him right with the bandaged lump.

"ONE GORILLA SLASH!"

The second the lump smashed into Raijax's head, it immediately exploded, bursting into a large green plant with a bulbous... well, _bubble_ square in the center of it.

The buoyancy of the bubble, combined with the force of Zoro's swing, was more than enough to launch Raijax out into the ocean, bellowing bloody murder all the way until he hit the ocean.

Zoro barely spared the sharkman a glance as he landed on the roof of a house, glaring at the plant affixed to his sword. "That damn long-nose had _better_ be able to get this damn thing off..." He growled to himself. "Why the hell did I have to use this thing anyways?"

"Because you're a reckless savage and you would have cracked the guy's skull in two if you used the flat of the blade?" Sanji snarked as he jumped onto the rooftop alongside him.

Zoro scoffed without even glancing at him. "Keep your shit in your cooking, dartbo-!"

CLANG!

In an instant, Zoro had Kitetsu out of its sheath and struggling against the sole of Sanji's outstretched foot.

"Our part's done, so we don't need to play nice any more, marimo-for-brains." Sanji growled.

Zoro chuckled darkly as he allowed a sadistic smirk to grow on his face. "I wouldn't have it any other way, _shitcook."_

And so, once anew, it began.

 **-o-**

Raijax's flight downwards was short and surprisingly controlled. Ancient instincts from deep within his subconscious alerted his basal ganglia that an impact with water was imminent. The ganglia, busy running Raijax's rampage, didn't bother to respond, so the message was passed on to his basic motor functions. These sent the necessary signals to his muscles, causing Raijax to adjust in midair so that he was aimed like a dart at the water, ready to simply slide under.

The sharkman impacted the water face-first, knifing in down to twenty feet and then rapidly arcing to the side, physics and his own swimming skills serving to bleed off his momentum in a wide, surface-skimming arc.

Raijax snarled and snapped at the water as he swam through it, fury overriding all but his most predatory instincts. He was absolutely _beyond_ livid by this point. Twice, _twice_ a meal had escaped him. But no more, _no more!_ All he needed was a trace, a scent, and he would-! He... would...

Raijax came to a sudden halt in the water, his nose twitching animatedly as he angled himself towards the source. Slowly, eagerly, the sharkman's tongue slithered out of his mouth and over his teeth, a primal growl rumbling from his chest.

A quarter of a mile away on a stretch of the beach, Monkey D. Luffy was standing thigh deep in the surf. The pirate captain was glaring out at the water with rock-solid determination, his hands open and ready at his sides.

Luffy clenched and unclenched his fingers briefly, feeling the blood run from the open gashes on his palms down his fingers before dripping into the seawater.

Finally, Luffy caught sight of what he was waiting for: a shark fin, peeking out of the water and circling slowly in the middle of the bay.

Slowly, calmly, the rubberman spread his legs and balanced his hands on his knees, sumo-style, as he kept his gaze locked on the fin.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the water erupted into a massive spray of foam as the fin _split the ocean_ with the sheer speed with which it rocketed at the coast, its trajectory unerringly focused on the Straw Hat Captain.

Luffy barely even flinched as the sharkman bore down on him, growing exponentially closer every moment.

Fifty feet turned into thirty, thirty into fifteen, fifteen to five.

It was at this point Raijax... no, a _devil,_ erupted from the water, _flying_ at Luffy. Every inch of the being's ten feet of already impressive muscle was pitch-black and glistening in the moonlight, from the tips of his outstretched hands to the countless fangs that inhabited his all-but dislocated jaw. It was difficult to tell what truly brought the image together better: the primeval howl of apoplectic wrath that ripped out of Raijax's throat, or the soulless marbles that had replaced his eyes and provided perfect windows into the abyss.

And Luffy... Luffy stared.

He stared unflinchingly into Raijax's abyss. Every second, every _instant_ that Raijax drew closer, he stared. He didn't blink, didn't twitch, didn't waver. He just... _stared._

Until finally, when he was less than half a foot away... Raijax blinked.

That was all it took.

From out of nowhere, Luffy's body erupted in a halo of steam and he _moved,_ ducking beneath Raijax's mass and _ramming_ his Armament-coated palm into Raijax's throat. With a massive heave, he then all but _plucked_ the sharkman out of the air, flipping his body around his throat and slamming him back-first beneath the waves and into the sand.

Just as Raijax started to process what had happened, Luffy leapt on top of him, straddling his chest. He then bit into both his thumbs at once and pumped a hasty burst of air into both his hands. Once he was done, he snapped his enlarged hands to both sides of Raijac's neck, effectively smothering the sharkman's gills beneath his grip.

Raijax snapped furiously at Luffy for a second before suddenly going ballistic, thrashing and raging beneath the water as a stream of bubbles, what little oxygen he had remaining, flowed out of his mouth and painted the water white, water rushing in through his nose to fill the vacuum.

In the midst of his thrashing, Raijax's fists swung up and slammed once, twice against Luffy's skull before clanging off the helmet of Armament Haki he called into place. Hastily switching tactics, the Sharkman instead engulfed Luffy's head between his far larger palms and _pressed_ with all the strength he could muster.

This course of action came to a halt as a wave of _presence_ inundated Raijax's mind. His body went slack for a moment, his eyes rolling into his head... before they snapped back into focus as he redoubled his efforts, his entire body _jerking_ itself awake.

Raijax was interrupted once more by another burst of presence, which he recovered from just as fast. He was then hit by the presence again, and again and again. Over and over, the presence struck him like a hammer blow, each time in quicker and quicker succession.

Ultimately, Luffy was left panting and gasping as he held the sharkman down, suffocating him with a constant stream of his own, concentrated willpower. Raijax's body shuddered and vibrated frantically, foam replacing the bubbles as he struggled in the midst of the demonic mother of all seizures, not helped by the saltwater still invading his nostrils.

However, as epic as this clash was, sooner or later, something _had_ to give.

And finally... it did.

Without so much as a sign of warning, Raijax's body froze, his every muscle locking up.

Slowly, inch by agonizing inch, the Haki receded from Raijax's flesh, leaving him a relatively healthy grey. Millimeter by millimeter, the darkness in his eyes shrunk back, revealing more and more emotion with every instance. Bit by bit, his muscles relaxed, his limbs releasing Luffy and falling into the water by his sides as his body went slack.

Carefully, tentatively, Luffy let the air flow out of his arms as he released Raijax's gills and dismounted his chest, allowing the Sharkman to float freely and cough up a lungful of water.

Exhausted, the rubberman staggered slightly up the beach before collapsing forwards, his body throbbing in pain as he panted into the sand.

For a few minutes, the pair stayed like that, Raijax floating on his back and Luffy laying on the beach... until finally, Raijax started to move.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the sharkman started to shift his weight to the side, until finally he managed to flip himself onto his stomach and stare at the man who had stopped him.

Luffy met his gaze head on, and once anew they watched each other unflinchingly.

Finally, Raijax shifted. His jaw moved up and down, up and down, in a futile, _desperate_ attempt to communicate.

Luffy huffed and blinked for a second before slowly nodding and smiling a tired smile. "No problem."

And with that, Raijax slowly slid his eyes shut and shuddered heavily, tears streaming down his cheeks in pure relief.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Nami jerked herself awake, pulling her head up - and immediately regretted it as her neck screamed in protest. Her cheeks felt sticky, too. Blinking blearily, Nami stared uncomprehendingly ahead at the blurry mass before gasping as it came into focus as Raijax's prone, bandage-wrapped form. "Chopper, how-?"

"He's stable, but he hasn't woken up yet," Chopper said flatly as he stepped onto a stepladder beside her, fiddling with the IV drip that was in the sharkman's arm. "He shows signs of extreme exhaustion and some long-term malnourishment. As far as I can tell, his body has undergone extreme stress on account of an overdose of adrenaline. I suspect that his own body must have been using it to force him to remain awake, even after Luffy hit him with his Haki. Anyway, what he needs most is rest. He should wake up soon."

Nami blinked as she looked back at the doctor in confusion. "That was... oddly specific."

The doctor turned his head to stare at her with a look that was equal parts exasperated, irritated and sympathetic. "This makes the _fifth_ time in a row that you've fallen asleep and then woken up asking the same questions." He sighed and shook his head. "Listen, Nami, everyone including Raijax is _fine._ Heck, this time around, I _agreed_ with Luffy when he said that all he needed was to eat something! _Please_ , Nami, go to your bed and go. To. Sleep. You need it. I'll tell you when he wakes up, I swear."

Nami opened her mouth to respond, but bit her lip as she glanced at Raijax.

Chopper groaned and kneaded the bridge of his nose. "I didn't want to do this... Nami, Raijax would _want_ you to get some sleep, instead of tearing yourself to pieces like this."

 _That_ elicited a glare from the navigator. "That was a low blow, Chopper."

The doctor shrugged helplessly. "I told you I didn't want to do it. But... does that mean I'm any less right?"

Nami couldn't find a good answer to that. She gave Raijax a final glance before standing up and looking Chopper dead in the eye. "The second he wakes up. The _second."_

"So basically the same deal I have with Sanji whenever you or Robin are unconscious?"

" _What!?"_

"What?" Chopper tilted his head to the side innocently.

Nami's eye twitched as she silently resolved to make her date with Sanji a short one. "Anyways..." She turned towards the door. "Goodnight Chopper."

"Afternoon." Chopper corrected as he patted down Raijax's arm for a pulse. "You've been passing in and out for the past few hours."

Nami grumbled her understanding as she shut the door on her way out of the clinic.

It was at that instant that Raijax jerked upright with a rasping gasp, straining against the leather straps and gauze that were holding him down to the bed.

Chopper cursed under his breath as he erupted into his Kung Fu Point and pinned the sharkman down, taking extra care as he tightened the wire that was wrapped around Raijax's muzzle. "Raijax, RAIJAX!" He hissed beneath his breath. "Calm down, please! You're safe, you're in our ship's clinic! You're fine _,_ you-!" The reindeer hastily switched tactics as a thought struck him. "Nami is _fine,_ Raijax! Nami is safe and healthy and _fine!"_

The sharkman jerked and shuddered for a moment longer before slowly stilling. His chest heaved violently as he turned his head to stare at Chopper. "She's..." He groaned out around the wire. "Nami is... she's safe?"

Chopper nodded slowly as he shifted back into his far friendlier Brain Point. "Yes. I just managed to convince her to leave and go to bed. I can go and get her right-!"

"No!" Raijax jerked suddenly in a desperate effort to grab him. "D-don't... get her. Please."

Chopper stared at him in fear and confusion for a second before responding. "H-huh? What? Why? Don't you want to see her or...?"

Raijax made to shake his head, then paused as the straps held him tight. "Could you... um...?"

Chopper blinked before slapping his forehead. "Oh, right! Of course, of course, just give me a second..." He hastily went about releasing Raijax's arms. "Sorry about these, they were just in case you suffered a relapse. A precaution."

Raijax slowly sat up, wincing at the ache coursing through his muscles before slowly unwinding the wire around his mouth. "You should have used _chains_ instead of wire." He grumbled darkly.

 _That_ elicited a dark glare from Chopper. "Don't even _think_ about blaming yourself!" He ordered firmly. "Your actions were purely involuntary, and you should know it as well as me!"

The sharkman huffed as he stared flatly at the doctor. "You don't know what... you're..." He trailed off as he slowly looked down at his chest, realization setting in his stomach like ice. "Chopper..." He breathed, slowly raising a trembling hand to his chest and touching the bandages in horror. "Where... is my armor and my...?"

Chopper's assertive look melted into a far more empathetic expression as he stepped up to Raijax's arm and started to fiddle with his IV. "I... had to take it off to treat you. Franky made you a replacement nosecone, but your armor... I'm sorry, but I had no other choice. If it's any consolation, I made sure to do it completely in private. No one saw..." Chopper fell silent, his head bowed. "For what it's worth... you have my sympathy."

Raijax stared at the reindeer emotionlessly for a second before looking away with a low growl devoid of aggression.

Finally, Chopper managed to work the IV out of Raijax's arm and step back. "Anyways..." He started uneasily. "Why... don't you want to see Nami? I mean..." He rubbed the back of his head uncomfortably. "She really wanted to see you, so..."

For a moment, it looked like Raijax might say no, but then he sighed and let out a grunt of assent. "Fine. Just… lemme take a bath first, okay? I've got some, uh..." Raijax faltered slightly before wincing and rubbing his stomach. "'Intestinal distress'... from the digging."

"Why would that-" Chopper wondered aloud before his eyes widened in realization. "Oh, right, you probably used your... Yikes..." The reindeer shuddered at the thought of what that much powdered rock could do to someone's lower intestine. If Raijax weren't part shark, the blockage probably would've been downright dangerous. "I've got some prune juice, if you need any help…"

"No thank you, I'll be fine," Raijax grunted, putting his hands on the sides of the bed. "Once I get- unf!"

The sharkman flopped back onto the bed as his arms proved too weak to lift him up. "On second thought, could you…?"

"No problem," Chopper replied with a chuckle, shifting to Kung Fu Point and helping Raijax to his feet. With Chopper supporting Raijax under one shoulder, the two slowly made their way out of the clinic, through the kitchen and up into the library on the next deck.

"It's up the ladder." Chopper gestured. "Do you...?"

Raijax pulled out from over Chopper's shoulder, supporting himself against the ladder as he tested his legs. "I'm... feeling a bit better. I think I'll make it."

"Well, alright then. I'll be down here. Holler if you need anything."

Raijax nodded in understanding as he slowly levered his way up the ladder, steadfastly ignoring the ache in his arms as he went.

Chopper watched him climb in concern for a second before shrugging and walking over to one of the bookshelves and taking out a book.

Barely two seconds later, the door opened and Nami walked in wearing a fresh t-shirt and sweatpants, muttering under her breath as she scoured her thoughts. She promptly did a double-take at the sight of Chopper standing around and reading a book - and pointedly _not_ in the infirmary.

"Chopper?" she exclaimed, eyes wide. "What are you doing here!? Who's with Raijax!?"

"Oh, I am! Raijax woke up and asked to take a bath," Chopper replied cheerfully, pointing his hoof at the ceiling.

Nami stared at him blankly for a second, following Chopper's hoof up to the ceiling before slowly looking back at him. "...He's in the bathroom," she said flatly.

"Yup!"

Nami slowly clenched her eyes shut in. "The bathroom... that has a window in it... that leads out to sea."

"Yu-!" Chopper froze, his eyes widening in dawning comprehension as he registered what Nami had said. "Oh nononono-!" The reindeer immediately darted over to the ladder. He barely even had a hoof on it when a dark blur shot past one of the library's windows, followed swiftly by a loud splash.

Chopper froze, staring at the window in open-mouthed horror, before slumping forward and letting his forehead smack into a rung on the ladder. "Stupid, stupid, stupid…" he muttered, more disappointment than anger in his voice, each word accompanied by another impact with the rung.

Nami winced sympathetically as she patted the reindeer on top of his hat. "It's fine, Chopper, don't worry about it. Raijax isn't a genius, but he _is_ smart. There's no shame in being tricked by him. And besides, there's a bright side to all this."

Chopper smacked his forehead against the ladder a final time before freezing and smiling joyfully. "Hey, you're right!"

Nami blinked in surprise. "Alright, two bright sides. What's yours?"

Chopper spun around and pointed to the lines of liquid running out of his nostrils. "I finally got the seawater out of my nose!" He promptly flinched at the decidedly unimpressed look Nami was giving him. "But ah, hehe, that's not important right now. You were saying?"

Nami kept up her glare for a second before huffing and turning on her heel, marching over to the section of the library that held her charts. "I just need to confirm something..." Nami dug out an older folder and flipped through the charts held within before pulling one out. She scanned over the ancient yellowed paper for a moment before smiling and nodding in satisfaction. "I knew it..." She breathed to herself.

"Huh? What is it?" Chopper blinked in confusion.

En lieu of answering him, Nami darted over to the door. "I'm going to shore! Tell the others I'll be fine, I should be back before sundown!"

"Huh!? Bu- wait a second, Nami!" Chopper cried out. "Where are you going!?"

"Where Raijax is!" Nami shot back.

"But how do you-!?"

The door slammed shut.

"Know where... oh boy, Sanji's going to kill me..." Chopper groaned, kneading his forehead in exasperation before blinking as a thought occurred to him and he glanced over at the desk. "I wonder what she was looking at?"

The reindeer ambled over to the desk and hopped onto the chair, looking at the chart Nami had pulled out before blinking in surprise. "Huh? But why would Nami be looking at _this_ one?"

"Ahoy me bucko! Do ye mind if I intrude?"

"Huh?" Chopper looked at the door before smiling at the familiar face in greeting. "Oh, sure, Mayor Polly, come on in. What brings you here?"

The mayor shrugged as he entered the room. "Ah, nothing but mere curiosity, me boy. I caught sight of that fair wench ye call a navigator shooting out of here like a bat out of Impel Down and wondered what set her petticoat on fire."

The doctor shrugged helplessly as he proffered the chart Nami had taken out. "Your guess is as good as mine. Nami just looked at this and then ran off."

Polly looked that map over once before grinning and whistling in awe. "Well shiver me timbers and throw me in Davy Jones' locker! The lass works fast!"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"That there be a map o' Kayaku, drawn to the very last detail! Though... for some reason, I can't seem to find the village, and the name's all wrong!"

Chopper blinked in surprise, processing this for a moment before his jaw dropped open.

"EEEEEEEH!?"

 **-o-**

"Stupid jungle…" Nami grumbled as she pushed another set of low-hanging branches out of her way, jerking the bag she had slung over her back off of a branch it had caught on. "Stupid Kayaku… stupid _New World…_ agh!"

Luckily for the navigator, after several unending minutes of pushing her way through the island's untamed vegetation, Nami finally managed to burst through a particularly dense wall of leaves and bushes and into the open.

Nami blinked at the sudden burst of light... before gasping at what lay before her.

" _You know, you've just gotta admit..."_

Nami's throat clenched up as a sob threatened to burst out of her, tears welling up in her eyes.

It was a cliff overlooking the ocean, broad and serene and covered with almost clinically maintained grass.

Raijax sat before her, his legs curled up against his chest as he stared dead ahead.

A wooden cross stood erect before him. It was little more than two carved logs tied together with some ragged rope... but it was more than enough.

Nami sniffed as her mouth tilted into a joyous smile. "It's a hell of a view..." She breathed.

Raijax slowly glanced over his shoulder at her, but he didn't react, instead looking back at the cross.

The human dismissed the lack of reaction, slowly walking up behind the sharkman. She stared down at him for a second before sitting next to him in the exact same position, both staring at the cross emotionlessly.

Finally, Nami reached over her back and withdrew a sake bottle from her bag, proffering it to the sharkman. "Sake?" She offered.

Raijax blinked at the sake jar for a second before shrugging and taking it. He uncorked it and took a deep pull, rumbling joyously at the taste. He savored the taste for a second before casting a sidelong glance at her. "I'm not sharing, brat." He rumbled jokingly.

Nami snickered cheekily at that. "Yeah, I kinda figured, bastard." She reached into her bag again and withdrew another bottle. "That's why I brought my own."

Raijax chuckled as she took a prideful swig, and the two lapsed into silence as they drank.

After a few minutes, Raijax hesitated mid-swig before sighing and putting the bottle down in favor of glancing at Nami.

"I'm sorry... I almost knocked your head off." He rasped morosely. "Didn't recognize you. The hair, and Nami _is_ a pretty common name..."

Nami chucked as she ran her fingers through her long locks. "Yeah, I do look a bit different, don't I? They haven't updated my wanted posters yet, so it's not surprising."

Raijax blinked in surprise before turning his head to look at her. "Oh? You're wanted, now, huh?"

Nami blinked in turn. "You didn't know?"

The sharkman shrugged indifferently. "Haven't really cared for the rest of the world these past few years. News Coos have been avoiding me ever since I started grilling them. I just focused on surviving. Making the lives of pirates hell."

"Ah."

"Yep."

The two fell silent once more, drinking a bit before Nami spoke up.

"So... you made it again, huh?"

"I thought I'd finally gone stark raving mad when I saw this cliff from the water. Then I climbed up here... I had to clean it up a bit, cross ain't perfect, but..." He hugged himself tightly. "It felt _right,_ you know? I... I never knew her... but she was a good person. I just... wanted to pay my respects somehow." His eyes became downcast as he looked down. "Apologize... for my failures..."

Nami gave him a sidelong glare. "You have nothing to apologize for."

"Feh." He scoffed.

Silence reigned once anew until...

"...so." Raijax grunted. "Judging by your shoulder... Arlong?"

"Luffy took care of him. Arlong Park is rubble."

"That's good, that's good..." The sharkman nodded absentmindedly before tensing as a thought struck him. "Ah, a few years ago, when I passed through Fishman Island..."

" _And_ he took care of Hody too." She clarified. "You didn't try infiltrating them?"

"Tried and failed..." Raijax scowled into his sake. "Arlong must have called ahead. The bastards tried to kill me on sight. Barely managed to escape into the New World. Still..." He sighed heavily as he angled his jaws into what could have been a smile. "Good. Good to hear they're gone." He glanced at Nami. "Good kid too. He seems strong. Let me guess: he's famous?"

Nami shrugged as she smirked wistfully. "His name's Luffy. Monkey D. Luffy. And... yeah, just a little. He became _really_ well known after he managed to get the World Government to burn Enies Lobby to the ground."

Raijax blinked and looked at her in shock. "Well... _shit._ That's... impressive."

Nami took on an expression of faux-contemplation as she tilted her head to the side and tapped her chin in thought. "But I think he only became a truly global phenomenon when he punched a World Noble in the face."

For a moment, Raijax's mood shifted, his entire body tensing before he swiftly recomposed himself. "Really now? What for?"

The human frowned at the memory. "The bastard shot Hachi in the back."

Confusion and trepidation swept over Raijax's face. "... was... there a reason, or...?"

"Hachi exposed himself in a slave auction hall in Sabaody. He was trying to stop Luffy from making a scene while they were trying to rescue his mermaid friend from the Noble in question. And they were with us on the island to introduce us to a ship coater by the name of Raleigh. You might have heard of him." All this Nami managed to say with a perfectly straight face.

Raijax's expression immediately fell flat. "...okay, you have _got_ to be bullshitting me."

Nami chuckled as she took a hearty pull from her jug. "Have I _ever_ managed to get a lie past you?"

The sharkman opened and shut his mouth for a second before slowly turning his head to stare out over the ocean. "... well _shit._ "

"Heh. That was pretty much our reaction too."

Silence returned as the pair continued to drink. However, Raijax couldn't help but bring his hand up to scratch at the bandages covering his chest at _least_ once. That was all it took.

"Raijax..." Nami frowned as she laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Just... what did they do to you? I-I know that being a slave is hell..."

The sharkman threw his head back and barked out a harsh, almost desperate laugh. "Slave? _S-slave?_ I wasn't a _slave."_ His laughter swiftly became harsher and darker. "No... slaves had it easy compared to me. I was... a pet." His bloody smile devolved into a grimace. "No... no, I'm being generous. Not even a pet... I was their _trash can._ Biological garbage disposal. They threw anything and everything they considered trash into my tank."

Nami shuddered in disgust. "That's... horrible. But how-?"

"Everything that _they_ considered trash. _"_ Raijax repeated firmly.

"Huh? What... wait..." The navigator's pupils shrank as she _desperately_ prayed for the inkling she was feeling to be wrong. "You... no, you _can't_ mean..."

" _Everything."_

Nami's face instantly drained of blood, her hand whipping to her mouth as she fought to keep from heaving. "Oh... oh my _god._ "

"Heh..." Raijax chuckled grimly, running his fingers over his teeth. "You... You want to know something... interesting?" He didn't wait for a response. "Zoan types... they fight like hell, you know that? Even when they're drowning..." Raijax's hand found its way between his tightly clenched teeth. "While being torn in two... and ripped to shreds..." He bit harder into his hand as he started to hyperventilate, his eyes coming unfocused as he stared at nothing. "Disembowled, devoured, _eviscerated_ , little more than chunks of flesh and bone and muscle and _blood..."_ Raijax's arm let out a warning creak as he bit down even harder, blood flowing down his jaws. "All by a single crazed, _homicidal-!"_

The sharkman was ripped out of his past as his human companion rammed the electrified tip a rod into his side.

"...thank you..." He mumbled, prying his jaws out of his limb.

Nami bit her lip as she stared at the myriad of deep crescent-shaped scars that littered the wounded limb before looking him in the eye. "Why... didn't you get it covered up when you left? Fisher Tiger-"

"Tiger was a godsend..." Raijax cut her off, deep regret in his eyes. "But he didn't free me. It was another slave, a new one, a human... _he_ got me out. He saw what I'd done, what I'd been doing... but he found the keys to my tank and shackles and got me out anyways."

Raijax bowed his head, tears streaming from his eyes. "And I repaid him... by ripping his head off." A sob shook his body. "His head, the maid's head, the Noble's head... I _slaughtered_ my way to the sea. I didn't care who I killed, slaves or Nobles or... I-I just didn't _care."_ He shook his head desperately. "Took me years to regain _some_ form of lucidity. To stop going insane at so much as the _sight_ of blood, the _feel_ of it... Taste... that's pretty much become numb..."

Raijax crossed his arms over his chest and clutched his shoulders tightly. "After that... I... didn't ever want to forget. Didn't want to forget what they did to me, who caused it..." He screwed his eyes shut. "What... I'd done... This..." He sobbed as he clenched his arms tightly over his chest. "It's who I am. Who I'll always be. Who... who I need to... to _overcome_. Do...?" He shuddered heavily. "Do you understand."

"Yeah... yeah, I understand..." Raijax jerked as a pair of slender arms hugged him from behind. "But that doesn't mean I have to accept it. You're not what they made you. You're not what you became. You're not a monster, you're not a devil, you're not a trashcan..." Nami pressed her face into his back, tears dripping onto him.

"You're my friend." She whispered.

Raijax shook for a second before slowly leaning himself back into her. "You're saying I'm wrong, brat?" He rumbled, a myriad of emotions in his voice. "That I've been wrong my entire life?"

Nami smiled into his bandages. "You're implying that you've ever been right."

Raijax hiccupped as his tears streamed down his face. "Laps. Laps around the whole of the Grand Line. Until saltwater replaces every drop of your blood."

Nami laughed, a tear-filled sound, as she hugged him tighter. "I missed you... Bastard."

"Same here... Brat."

They only stayed there for about ten minutes, fifteen at most, but to the pair, it felt like an eternity.

Finally, however, it had to end.

Nami let go of the sharkman as she stood up and took a step back. "I'm... going to head back to the village. They're throwing a victory party and I don't want the guys to panic. Again."

Raijax sniffed and rubbed the tears out of his eyes, nodding in understanding. "Yeah, sure. You go on ahead. I... I'm going to stay here a bit." He held up his sake in way of explanation.

Nami nodded slightly and turned to walk away, but paused mid-motion. "Raijax..."

"Hm?" The sharkman looked over his shoulder at her.

Nami hesitated slightly before swallowing heavily and steeling her gaze. "I meant what I said earlier. You have nothing to apologize for. I forgave you a long time ago. Everyone did."

Raijax looked away with a grunt, waving his hand lackadaisically.

Nami bit her lip at the response, but ultimately she turned away and left.

Once Raijax was certain she was gone, he stood up with a huff and strode forwards, patting the cross absentmindedly as he passed it and stood on the edge of the cliff.

The sharkman took deep swig from his bottle as he stared out to sea. "Already forgave me, huh?" He mused for a second before shaking his head with a scoff. "Narcissistic little brat... Like she's the only one whose forgiveness I need." And with that, he threw his head back and started to chug the bottle.

" _Idiot."_

Raijax blinked in confusion as he _swore_ he heard an unfamiliar voice. Before he could contemplate it, however, he choked on his sake as a strong hand slapped him upside the back of his head. "Hey, what the-!?"

" _As if there was ever anything to forgive."_

Raijax spun around, catching sight of-

 _\- short red hair, a cocky yet kind smile, fearless eyes full of love-_

Absolutely nothing. The cliff was barren apart from the cross.

Raijax blinked as his mind's gears attempted to gain traction.

When they finally did though, his body started to shiver violently. He sniffed and gasped, tears starting to brim in his eyes.

He fought for control, he fought _hard_ to maintain his dignity. But in the end...

He just couldn't.

" _UWAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"_

The sharkman fell to his knees, flung his head back and howled. It was a primal sound, much like earlier, only whereas that was a sound of rage and hatred, this was so much more: Sorrow, relief, joy, liberation, emotion after emotion packed into the sound.

Raijax's body was wracked with tremors as the sobs left him, years upon years of emotion flooding from him with the intensity of a Knock-Up Current. Tears fell from the sharkman's eyes and snot bubbled out from under his nosecone, but he couldn't care less.

Finally, as he managed to regain _some_ form of control, Raijax snapped his hands up to his eyes, covering them as he continued to sob.

"THANK YOU!" He cried out, joy and relief choking his voice. _"TH-H-HAAAAANK YOOOOU!"_

And so, for the first time in seven years, if not his entire life... Raijax knew peace.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Luffy sighed out a jaw-stretching yawn as he leaned back against the Thousand Sunny's main mast, his legs crossed beneath him and his arms folded behind his head. "Maaan..." The rubber-man groaned. "I'm bored..."

And indeed he was, for good reason. Following the victory party that the villagers had thrown them earlier that day, the majority of the Straw Hats had decided to dedicate their time and effort to replenishing their supply stores, venturing out over the island to either purchase, harvest or hunt down the foodstuffs they'd need for tomorrow's departure.

Unfortunately for the captain, when it came time to decide who'd stay back and stand guard over the ship, he'd wound up drawing the short straw... and the long straw... and every straw, to be honest. And Nami's fist, shortly afterwards.

As such, while the rest of his crew was out exploring the island, most likely getting into a bunch of cool and awesome adventures involving zombies and knights and ninjas, he was stuck on board his own ship, left with nothing to do.

"Maaan, this bites..." he sighed heavily as he cocked his head to the side. He contemplated starting up a cheery tune to pass the time...

"Jackass."

When he was smacked straight out of his funk by a throaty snarl from dead ahead of him. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, Luffy looked up and stared in shock at the familiar aquatic form that was standing before him.

"You're a real jackass, Monkey D. Luffy." Raijax reiterated, his snarling voice full of dark fury.

Luffy blinked at the sharkman in confusion, tilting his head in the opposite direction.

"A _complete_ jackass," Raijax repeated, frustration present in every line of his fury. "An asshole of unrealistic proportions. Just... a complete and _utter_ jackass."

And with that, Raijax promptly dropped to his knees and prostrated himself before Luffy, his forehead thumping against the Sunny's lawn.

" _Jackass."_ He hissed.

Luffy blinked in confusion once anew as he scratched his temple. "Uh... aren't you being a bit harsh?"

"Well what else do you call someone like you, huh?" The sharkman demanded as he snapped his head up, a frustrated rumble erupting from his chest. "I've never even _met_ you before today, and yet I'm so deep in debt to you that I couldn't repay it in ten lifetimes!"

"Huh?" Luffy leaned forwards. "What are you talking about? You don't owe me anything!"

" _The hell I don't!"_ Raijax spat, slapping the lawn with his hand. "You put down Arlong and Hodi! You saved Nami and Cocoyashi Village and Fishman Island! Hell, you saved Nami from _me!_ You saved a mermaid from slavery! You saved Hachi from the World Nobles! For _fucks_ sake, you _punched out_ a World Noble! For hurting a _fishman!"_ He flung his arms up in exasperation. "That has _literally_ never happened before, not _once_ in the history of this world!"

Raijax sprang to his feet and started pacing back and forth, swinging his arms furiously. "Every single action you've done, it's done nothing but pile my debt with you higher and higher! I owe you my life, I owe you Nami's life, I owe you my _tenth generation's_ children's children! Before today, I didn't even know you existed, and suddenly you sail in out of Fuck You, Nowhere, bearing a crippling mountain of debt for me!"

The sharkman swung his head around to glare at Luffy with all the rage he could muster. "In short, there is _literally_ no other name for you but _jackass._ "

Luffy reeled at the verbal barrage for a second before hastily rallying, racking his brain for a response. "Uh... does it help if I say that I almost broke that big ship on Fishman Island?"

Raijax blinked in surprise. "The Noah? You almost destroyed it?"

"Yeah, it was falling on Fishman Island, so I tried to break it. It's still in one piece, but it's pretty beat up, and Jinbei said that it was important, so-!"

"Jinbei."

"Huh?"

"Jinbei. You just said _Jinbei_ told you about the Noah."

"Uh... yeah, so what?"

"...how do you know Jinbei?"

"Oh, that's easy! I met him in Impel Down when I was trying to rescue my brother! He helped me break out after I broke him ou-!"

" _JACKASS!"_

Luffy flinched at the outraged outburst before desperately thinking again. "Uh, uh... Oh! How about this? I ate _all_ the candy that was going to be sent to Big Mom to pay for her protection! I didn't know it was meant for her, but I ate it anyways! Does that help?"

Raijax huffed furiously for a second before calming down and looking up in consideration. "I... y-yeah, that might help. From what I've heard, Big Mom loves her food, so she'd have been pissed. So long as you let her stay pissed at Fishman Island, then-!" Unfortunately, Raijax chose that exact time to look back at Luffy, and promptly slapped a hand to his face when he caught sight of him glancing away nervously, a guilty whistle escaping his lips. "Oh sweet mother of- What did you do!?"

"Nothin'..."

" _So help me, Strawhat-!"_

"Uh... I _may_ have told Big Mom that I ate all the candy and that I planned on coming to the New World so that I could kick her ass... and then I claimed Fishman Island as my own territory because she was way too dangerous?" Luffy topped his explanation off with a wide, if shaky, smile.

Raijax's eyelid twitched in open-mouthed shock as he stared incredulously at Luffyu. Finally, after a minute, he slapped his hands to his face and dragged his fingers down what was left of his cheeks as he looked to the heavens with a growl of pure exasperation, dragging his eyelids down in the process.

Finally, the sharkman drew in a deep breath, stood up straight, and slapped his palms together before him. "Luffy," he stated, his voice slow and calm. "Over the years, I have been forced to develop an amount of patience equal to that of a saint in order to keep myself under control. That being said, if you say one more word, I will reach down your throat. I will rip out your entrails. And I will hang you from the mast with them. Am I clear?"

Luffy hesitated for a second before responding. "Uh... that... wouldn't work? Cause, see, my guts stretch, and-!"

" _ **I WILL FIND A WAY."**_

The future King of the Pirates promptly clapped his hands over his mouth and nodded vigorously, cold sweat flowing off him like a waterfall.

Slowly, Raijax breathed in and out, in and out, fighting to regain control of his temper. Finally, he sank to a sitting position and stared at Luffy neutrally. "Let. Me. Be clear here." He grit out. "We. Need. To. _Fix this_. Now, don't get me wrong," he held his hands up in surrender. "I'm grateful to you for what you've done for me and for Nami, more than you can imagine. And that is exactly the problem. I _need_ to pay you back for all you've done. My pride as a fishman is on the line here. Hell, my pride as a _man, period,_ is on the line here. Do you understand?"

Instantly, Luffy's expression became serious as he crossed his arms and nodded firmly. "Yeah, I understand. A man's pride is important."

Raijax nodded gratefully. "Good, good... now..." He spread his hands, his face bearing a pained expression. "What can I do for you to properly express my gratitude?"

Luffy barely hesitated a second before grinning from ear to ear.

"Why don't you join my crew?"

Raijax blinked in surprise from the offer, before angling his jaws in an approximation of a smile. "I'd love to..."

Luffy's grin grew even wider.

The sharkman's teeth promptly dropped into a frown. "But I can't."

Luffy's expression dropped in turn. "Whaaaat? But why?! Nobody's mad at you! Everyone understands! They'd love to have you on board!"

Raijax sighed and shook his head sadly. "Believe me, Luffy, I'd love nothing more than to join your ship, to sail with you across the seas, having adventures..." Raijax's eyes gained a slightly far off look before he hastily shook himself back to the present with an even wearier sigh. "But the fact is, no matter how much I want to, I _can't_ sail on your ship."

"Huh?" Luffy's head went horizontal. "Whaddaya mean?"

The sharkman ground his teeth together in frustration. "Luffy... I _defiled_ the Thousand Sunny. I defiled your ship."

The rubber-man blinked before smiling in relief. "Oh, is that all? That's _fine!_ I mean, sure, Franky and Nami might get angry and yell at you, but c'mon, the deck is a lawn, and the trees need the-!"

" _NOT LIKE THAT, DAMN IT!"_ Raijax snarled furiously. The sharkman glanced at the grass beneath him with a slightly disgusted shiver before shaking his head. "No... Luffy..." He ground his palm into his temple. "When I say defile, I mean... I snuck on board without you or the crew's permission! I broke her locks, stole her food..."

Luffy hesitated and bit his lip in thought. "Uh... Robin snuck onto the Going Merry, and I steal food all the time..."

Raijax slowly looked Luffy dead in the eye, his expression deadly serious. "And have either you or Robin shed the crew's blood on these decks?"

Luffy flinched, unable to respond.

Raijax growled morosely as he slowly looked over the ship. "I attacked Nami in cold blood and injured her upon this ship, and even if I was insane, I tried to kill your crew. It doesn't matter what the circumstances were or what I do, the facts remain the same: I defiled this ship and her crew. Were I to sail with you..." He sighed heavily and bowed his head. "I'd be nothing more than a poison. It's as simple as that."

The future King of the Pirates bit his cheek as he processed Raijax's statement before he hung his head with a sigh. "I don't like it," he decided. "And I still want you to join my crew... but I understand what you're saying."

The sharkman nodded slowly and solemnly. "Thank you, but that still puts us back at square one."

Luffy hummed in agreement as he tilted his head to the side, his face scrunched up in thought. "If only there was a way you could join my crew, _without_ sailing on the Sunny..."

Raijax started to nod again before freezing as a thought struck him. "Say that again."

"If only there was a way?"

"No, _after_ that!"

"You could join my crew?"

"No no, the _last_ thing you said!"

"Let's set sail?"

"The hell-!? Ergh, forget it, it doesn't matter! Luffy, I think I might have an idea!"

 **-o-**

"Thanks again fer yer help, mateys! The residents o' Kayaku shall be forever in yer debt!" Polly bellowed gratefully from the rowboat he was situated in.

The piratical mayor and a small fleet of rowboats were floating alongside the Thousand Sunny, just outside of the ship's graveyard, the villagers saying their final goodbyes as the Straw Hats prepared to set sail.

"Shishishishi!" Luffy laughed. "No problem, pirate mayor guy! We'll come and visit some time!"

"Heck yeah we are!" Zoro smirked as he waved at a bunch of burly guys in one of the boats. "It's been a long time since anyone managed to keep up with me in a drinking contest! I'm looking forwards to round two!"

"AND I LOOK FORWARDS TO THE LADIES!" Sanji swooned as he stared at the numerous women who were smiling and waving goodbye saucily. "WAIT FOR ME, MY DEARS! YOUR DARLING PRINCE _WILL_ RETURN!"

"THE HELL YOU WILL, YOU BASTARD!" Shouted several men in return, their harsh words contrasted by the jovial tones in their voices and the grins on their faces.

"AND REMEMBER!" Usopp planted a foot on the Sunny's railing and pointed a finger into the sky. "SNIPER ISLAND!"

"IS IN OUR HEARTS!" A mass of children and more than a few adults wearing paper masks answered heartily as they mimicked his pose.

"Alas, my lovelies!" Brook lamented, a forearm draped over his forehead. "It is time at last that I must depart! May we meet again, in this life or the next!"

"Please, Soul King, one more song!"

"If only I could, my darling fans, if only I could! But sadly, my duty calls!"

"We'll show you our panties!"

"OKAY THEN!"

"THIS IS SUCH A SUPER TOWN!" Franky sobbed into his forearm. "I LOVE YOU ALL SOOO MUUUCH!"

"I KNOOOW!" Chopper cried in agreement, snot and tears matting his fur. "I NEVER WANT TO LEEEAVE!"

"H-huh? Why are you crying, little bro?"

" _NOBODY MISTOOK ME FOR A RACOON-DOOO-O-OOOOG! WAAAAAAH!"_

Robin chuckled as she watched her crew's ministrations before blinking as she realized that something was amiss. A quick glance around rewarded her with her answer, prompting her to subtly cross her arms.

Nami sighed heavily as she leaned back against the top spike of the Sunny's mane, staring out into the open sea.

"Is something wrong, Nami?"

The navigator didn't react as Robin's voice spoke up next to her, looking down sadly as she hugged herself. "I... just can't believe that Raijax didn't come to see us off. I..." Her lip started to tremble as her eyes grew wet. "I just thought..."

Nami instantly leaned into the hand that pressed itself onto her shoulder. "Some scars run deep, Nami. Cherish the moments you had with him, enjoy the fact that you managed to reconcile with him. That is more than some people will ever have."

Nami mulled over the words for a second before nodding slowly. "Thanks, Robin. I... I will." She wiped the tears in her eyes and started to turn around. "Tell the guys to haul anchor. We're setting sail."

Robin smiled sadly and nodded in agreement before dissolving into petals.

And so, the Straw Hat Pirates raised the Sunny's anchors, dropped their sails and set off, out to delve the mysteries of the New World once anew.

At the aft of the ship, Nami leant upon the balustrade, staring sadly at the twin of the island she would forever call home.

' _Goodbye, Raijax,'_ She thought dejectedly. _'I'll never forget you as long as I-'_

 **BOMF!**

"GAH!" Nami cried out in shock, reeling as the ocean behind the Sunny was engulfed in a huge plume of smoke. "What the heck!?"

"Nami-swan!" Sanji cried as he and the rest of the crew joined her at the rear of the ship. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine! What just-!?"

"NIN NIN NIN NIN NIN NIN!"

"Huh?!" Nami blinked as the sound of laughter drew her attention back to the smoke cloud... and stared.

As the mantle of vapor thinned into nothingness, it revealed a ship that had appeared out of nowhere. The ship was one of the new-fangled metal-hull ships the yards had started to turn out, flush-decked and its sails furled in favor of the coal-and-steam engine below-decks that was spewing black smoke through a funnel. A few light cannon poked their muzzles out of the sides, but what drew attention was the absolutely _massive_ and very long cannon mounted on the forecastle in some sort of revolving turntable.

Swarming all over the vessel was a multitude of people who could only be described as grey-clad ninjas, wearing gray jumpsuits and balaclavas and toting shuriken, kunai and tanto.

...seriously, I couldn't make this up if I tried.

Two flags flew from the top of the mainmast: one a grinning skull with a blank forehead protector over a shuriken, and above that-

"Blackbeard," Nami hissed, glaring at the triple-skulled emblem as though it were Arlong's.

"NIN NIN NIN NIN! INDEED, STRAW HAT-SAN!" The same voice from before laughed.

It was originating from a ninja standing on the poop deck of the vessel. He was twice as tall, twice as thick, and twice as heavy as the other ninja, clad in a set of samurai-esque armor and clutching a naginata in his grip.

The heavy-set ninja rapped his fist on his chestplate as he glared mockingly at the pirates. "I AM KAIZOKU-SAN! CAPTAIN OF THE MIZU-CHI PIRATES-SAN! WE ARE A PROUD CLAN OF NINJA, SERVING BENEATH OUR HONORABLE EMPEROR, THE GREAT BLACKBEARD-SAN!"

"Wooow, they're ninja!?" Chopper whistled in admiration. "That's awesome! And yet..." His face immediately became a rictus of rage, steam shooting out of his nostrils. "For some reason, they're pissing me off!"

"That makes sense." Robin mused. "Pirates and ninja have feuded for generations. Blackbeard fell even further in standing when he started allying himself with them."

"Of course, these guys aren't really ninja if they're calling themselves pirates, are they?" Sanji mused as he took a pull from his cigarette.

"More like a bunch of idiot ninja pretending to be pirates, or a bunch of idiot pirates to be ninja." Zoro scoffed.

"Whaaat?" Luffy groaned as he hung his head in disappointment. "So they're not real ninja? That's lame..."

Kaizoku's eye twitched in impotent rage as he stared at the Straw Hats. "LAAAAAME-SAN!?" He bellowed. "YOU THINK WE'RE LAME-SAN!? I'LL SHOW YOU-SAN!" He swung around and jabbed his naginata at the ship's graveyard ahead of his ship. "FIRE MAIN CANNON-SAN!"

Before anyone could react, the enemy vessel shuddered as the massive cannon on its prow discharged, obscuring the ship in a choking cloud of smoke. The Straw Hats had barely a second to react before the shell slammed into one of the wrecks dotting the ship graveyard and exploded, turning the ship into so many flying splinters and shredding the two hulks next to it.

"Holy crap, that's one hell of a cannon!" Usopp sputtered in disbelief.

"What the hell did they do, steal a Buggy Ball or something!?" Nami demanded.

"NIN NIN - _cough-_ NIN NIN!" Kaizoku bellowed heartily, occasionally doubling over to cough. "NOT SO - _cough-_ LAME NOW, ARE WE - _cough-_ SAN? WE'LL SHOW YOU JUST _-cough-_ HOW NOT-LAME WE ARE-SAN!"The enemy captain jabbed his naginata at the island. _"WHEN WE CONQUER THIS PATHETIC -cough- ISLAND IN THE NAME OF BLACKBEARD-SAN! NIN NIN NIN NIN NI-cough cough cough- YOU MORONS USED THE WRONG GUNPOWDER-SAN!"_

Nami's breath caught in her throat at the statement, her pupils shrinking to pinpricks.

" _SHAHAHAHAHA! This island..._ IS MINE!"

" _NO! NOT AGAIN!"_ Nami screamed, fear and horror lacing her voice.

"FRANKY, TURN THE SHIP AROUND, WE'VE GOTTA STOP THEM!" Sanji ordered instantly.

"YOU GOT- huh?" The cyborg blinked as a hand grabbed his arm.

Luffy stared dead ahead at the pirates, maintaining his grip on his shipwright. "No."

Franky stared at his captain in confusion. "Say wh- But Luffy, aren't we going to stop them!?"

The rubberman shook his head firmly. "Nope. We're going to sit here and watch."

The Straw Hat Captain didn't even flinch as a rod of blue metal suddenly pressed itself against his neck. "Luffy," Nami hissed, tears threatening to burst from her eyes. "I've trusted a _lot_ of your crazy plans over the years without question... but not this time. _This time..._ you had better give me an explanation I like... or I swear _I will shove you into the sea."_

For a second, Luffy didn't react as he continued to stare ahead... before turning his head to smile cockily at her. "We're not doing anything about these guys because our new crewmate's going to take care of them!"

The crew blinked and asked the same question simultaneously. "New crewmate?"

Suddenly, from out of the blue, a voice bellowed loud enough for everyone on the ocean to hear.

"MAKO..."

Suddenly, the ocean to the right of the Mizu-Chi Pirate's ship erupted into a spray of foam as what appeared to be a pitch-black blade sliced through the water, jetting straight at-

 _CRASH!_

-and _through_ the bottom of the vessel, causing the entire ship to tilt to the side and sending its crew falling flat on their faces.

"KEEL KRUSHER!"

Nami gaped in shock as she attempted to process the turn of events. "N-no way... was that-?"

She received her answer in the form of the water to the side of the water erupting as a gray blur burst from the ocean, soaring high above the ship before landing with a deck-shattering _smash._

Raijax's smirk was hidden behind his new faceplate as he stood to his full height, expertly twirling a trident in his hand. "Who wants to get their skull caved in first?" He demanded eagerly.

"HEEEEY, RAIJAX! YOU'RE LATE!" Luffy bellowed, smiling as he waved his hand at the sharkman. "YOU MADE NAMI REALLY SAD, YOU BASTARD!"

"Sorry, sorry!" Raijax chortled as he scratched the back of his head. "I saw these morons coming a mile off and I decided to make a bit of an entrance! Anyways..." He smirked as he swung his trident up, resting it's shaft on his shoulders. "Your orders... Captain?"

Luffy's smile gained a predatory overtone before he shot both of his fists high into the air. _"KICK THEIR ASSES, RAIJAX!"_

Raijax swiftly hunched forwards, eagerness in every part of his stance. "With pleasure!"

Kaizoku, who had been trembling furiously at the turn of events, finally lost his patience as he jabbed his naginata at the fishman. _"KILL HIM-SAN!"_ He roared.

"HAI, TAICHOU!" The ninja bellowed, drawing their weapons and surrounding the sharkman instantly.

Raijax eyed the crowd of ninja with a bored eye before sighing and shaking his head. "This is the best you have to offer?"

Without warning, he swung his trident off his shoulder in a wide arc, striking the front lines of the throng and sending them flying back. "I'M DISAPPOINTED!" he bellowed.

The ninja flinched back slightly at the action before charging forwards, bellowing their defiance to the high heavens.

The sharkman scoffed as he promptly started to duck and weave around the flurry of attacks, stepping around them as though they were moving at a snail's pace or idly swinging his trident up to block them. For every dodge he made, he retaliated twice as hard, slapping them with an iron hard forearm or braining them with the flat of his trident.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, he came to a halt, allowing one of the ninja to jab a kunai into his gills.

The ninja felt a brief moment of elation... before paling as he realized that the short blade wasn't moving an inch.

Raijax slowly turned his head to stare at the dumbstruck ninja, his pitch-black gills glinting in the sunlight as he gave the mook a look that could only be interpreted as 'really? Just _really?'_

The ninja had just enough time to swallow heavily before a fist twice the size of his head slammed into his face.

Raijax sighed in faux misery as he tilted his head to the side. "Is there really no one on this ship who can give me a challenge?" He then smirked as he jerked his elbow backwards, catching a ninja that had been trying to sneak up on him in the face. "Guess not."

The sharkman shrugged as he rolled his shoulders, ignoring the weapons that were clanging off either his armor or the parts of his skin that were coated in Haki. "Still... seeing how this is the first time I've done this for a good reason in a while..." He promptly spun his left arm, unwinding the net he had wrapped around it and flinging it out over the crowd. "I MIGHT AS WELL ENJOY MYSELF!"

Several unlucky ninja were caught in the net at once, struggling in vain to free themselves from the tangle of rope ensnaring them before being jerked off their feet as Raijax pulled the line leading to the net taut, swinging them around and around like a flail and smashing well over a dozen of their comrades at once with them before releasing his hold on the line and sending them crashing into one of the ship's walls.

Raijax scoffed as he stared at the crowd of fallen ninja that surrounded him. "But still... I wouldn't mind a _real_ challenge..."

He promptly spun his trident in his hand, knocking a brace of shuriken that had been flung at his head out of the air.

The sharkman cast a sidelong glance loaded with boredom at the source of the throwing stars. "What part of the words 'real challenge' did you not understand?" He deadpanned.

"IMPUDENT FOOL-SAN!" Kaizoku bellowed as he leapt onto the main deck, snarling furiously as he jabbed the blade of his naginata. "I AM KAIZOKU-SAN! I HAVE HELD MY BOUNTY OF SEVENTY-FIVE MILLION BERRIES FOR TEN YEARS-SAN! TREMBLE BEFORE MY POWER-SAN!"

Raijax cocked an eyebrow as he looked the large human up and down. "Ten years at seventy-five? That's not impressive, that's pathetic. I can't imagine why Blackbeard hired you lot. What, did he like your ninja gimmick or something?"

Kaizoku's entire body went tense for a moment before he let out a bellowing roar, twisting his feet and splintering the deck below him.

Raijax's eyes crinkled slightly as he smiled. "Looks like I hit the nail on the head."

" _DIE-SAN!"_ The ninja-captain roared, charging at the sharkman.

Raijax dodged around the jab that Kaizoku levelled at him, eyeing the weapon with barely any interest before ducking under the swing that acted as a follow-up. He then swung his trident up into the weapon, catching it's blade between the tines.

"ERGH- _YOU-!"_ Kaizoku growled as tried to break the lock in vain.

"Let me make some facts clear. Facts you seem to be unaware of." Raijax growled darkly as he steadfastly held his trident in place. "First, you never stood a chance at beating my crew, the Straw Hat Pirates."

Kaizoku's eyes widened in terror as his naginata was slowly pushed back.

"Second, you never stood _half_ a chance at beating my captain, 'Straw Hat' Monkey D. Luffy."

Raijax shoved even harder, forcing the weapon to the side as he shoved his face in the ninja's.

"And last but not least," He snarled. "You never stood a _shadow_ of a chance..."

With a final jerk of his arm, Raijax ripped the naginata out of Kaizoku's hands and gave him a massive bodycheck, launching him at the prow of the deck.

Raijax snuffed dismissively as he marched up to the central mast of the ship, black coating the length of his trident.

"Of beating me."

And with that, Raijax swung his trident clean through the mast, raised his foot and gave it a firm stomp.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then, with an ominous groan, the mast _slowly_ tilted forwards. Kaizoku gave a shriek of terror as he the mast's shadow swept over him and snapped his arms up in a futile form of defense...

CRASH!

Just as the mast smashed down _right_ next to him.

Kaizoku blinked in shock before laughing uproariously. "NIN NIN NIN NIN!" He jeered. "YOU MISSED-SAN!"

Raijax ignored the ninja's taunting, instead taking great interest in examining his own nails. "You know, I might have only just recently started naming my attacks, but I'm actually quite honest about them. For example, the Mako Keel Krusher?"

Kaizoku blinked in confusion before tensing as an ominous creaking sound echoed beneath him.

Raijax flicked his cold, determined gaze up. "That _wasn't_ a misnomer."

And with a screech of tearing wood and metal, the ship split straight down the middle, the bow and stern flipping upward as the middle of the ship rapidly began filling with water.

In less than a minute, the once (relatively) proud ship was little more than a new wreck in the dilapidated island.

Raijax stood on the very tip of the ship's prow, watching as the ninja flailed and struggled as they were unceremoniously dumped in the ocean.

"Y-YOU BASTARD-SAN!" Kaizoku roared, fighting to stay above the water and fight against the drag of his armor. "DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU'VE DONE-SAN!? I AM A SUBORDINATE OF THE GREAT BLACKBEARD-SAN! WHEN I INFORM HIM OF THIS AFFRONT, HE SHALL BRING DEVASTATION DOWN UPON YOUR _HEAD-SAN!"_

Raijax cocked an eyebrow at the ninja captain before tilting his head in a smirk. "Good. I _want_ you to tell him about me."

Kaizoku jerked back in shock. "W- _WHAT-SAN!?"_

"You heard me," Raijax chuckled. "Tell Blackbeard about me. Tell him, tell his commanders, tell their subordinates, their _subordinates'_ subordinates, tell _everyone!_ Spread my name across the whole of the New World!" He leant forwards malevolently. "And why you ask?" He narrowed his eyes. "Simple."

Suddenly, Raijax jerked up and slammed the butt of his trident into the metal beneath his feet in an effort to garner their attention. "LISTEN UP, YOU WORTHLESS PIECES OF PLANKTON!" He bellowed furiously. "AS OF THIS MOMENT, I, RAIJAX, CLAIM THIS ISLAND!" He jabbed his trident at the island in question, "THE ISLAND OF KAYAKU, AND ALL LAND WITHIN IT, AS THE TERRITORY OF MY CAPTAIN, _MONKEY D. LUFFY!"_

He then swept his weapon over the ninja. "SO WHEN YOU RETURN TO BLACKBEARD, TELL HIM THAT IF HE WANTS THIS ISLAND, HE'LL NEED TO SEND AN ARMY! _TWO_ ARMIES! HELL, _HIMSELF_ EVEN!"

Raijax held his head high and slammed his fist into his chest. "BECAUSE THE ONLY WAY THAT _ANYONE_ WILL HARM THIS ISLAND AND THOSE WHO LIVE ON IT WILL BE BY GOING THROUGH ME! AND I INTEND TO GUARD IT! _TO THE DEATH!"_

Raijax smirked as the ninja panicked and started paddling away as swiftly as they could manage, crying in panic.

The sharkman revelled in his victory for a moment...

"HEEEEY!"

Before jerking as a familiar voice broke him out of his pride. "Whoops," He grunted in embarrassment. Moving swiftly, Raijax jumped over the wreckage of the ship until he was standing on the very aft of the ship, waving at the Thousand Sunny. "Hey captain!" he shouted. "How'd I do?"

Luffy smirked happily as he waved back. "GREAT! THAT WAS AWESOME! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK, ALRIGHT?"

Raijax shot him a thumbs up. "Got it!"

Sanji smirked at his captain. "So, you got him into the crew, huh?"

Luffy snickered and nodded in agreement. "Yup! He said he couldn't sail on the Sunny, so we came up with a capricorn!"

"That's 'compromise', dumbass." Zoro deadpanned.

Raijax smiled beneath his faceplate as he stared at the ship, but suddenly tensed up, his eyes filling with worry. "LUFFY!" He bellowed.

The rubberman blinked and looked at him in confusion. "WHAT?"

Raijax raised his hand and started to say something, but he winced slightly and pulled back as he hesitated.

Luffy blinked again before smirking and nodding, shooting the sharkman a thumbs up. "YOU GOT IT!"

Raijax relaxed almost instantly. "Thank you..." He mumbled.

Luffy's grin widened with a chuckle. "Shishishi!"

The sharkman turned to leave...

"RAIJAX!"

When he was frozen by a familiar voice.

Nami leant over the edge of the railing as she stared at the sharkman. She hesitated for a moment, searching for something to say... before smiling sadly. "Come find us when we reach Raftel!" She called out. "Alright... you old bastard?"

Raijax hesitated slightly before looking back at her with a hidden smile, raising arm in agreement. "It's a promise!" He replied. "You little brat!"

Nami's smile widened as a few tears slid down her cheeks. "Goodbye... Raijax."

Raijax turned away with a sigh, hiding the tears that glittered in his eyes. "Take care... Nami."

And with that, he dived beneath the waves and was gone.

Back on the Thousand Sunny, the crew slowly started to disperse over the deck.

"Oi, crap-cook, mind whipping up something to eat? I'm feeling a little hungry after watching that beatdown, and it's not like we're going to run out of food any time soon."

"Lunch isn't for another hour, mosshead. Just wait till then like the rest of you morons."

"Just shut up and get me something already, will you?"

"You want something to eat? Fine! How about you taste boot's _leather!"_

"That's how you want to play it, huh? _EAT STEEL!"_

"Yohohoho! Dearest Robin, might I ask for some, ah, _inspiration_ for my songs?"

"Sure thing, Brook. In just a moment. Franky, did you complete my request?"

"YEOW! Sure did, Robin! Hey, Soul-bro, mind holding this for a sec?"

"Oooh, what is it? Is it a present? Is it? Is-?"

SPROING!

"...I, ah, appear to be stuck."

"Looks like the SUPER Franky Wire-Trapper works like a charm!"

"Thank you Franky. Now I can have a moment to read in peace."

"No problem, sis!"

"Er, could either of you two please liberate me?"

"Only if you promise to leave me be for a while."

"..."

"STOP CONSIDERING THAT, BRO!"

"Ah... man, these past few days might have been crazy, but at least we're finally home free, right Chopper?"

"You're right, Usopp! Ah, just look at the ocean. The sun is shining, there's not a cloud in the sky, the sea breeze smells so-!"

 _SPLASH!_

"Ack, freak wave! Yikes, I'm soaked. Got some up my nose, too. What about you, Chopper?"

"..."

"Chopper?"

" _RAAAAAAAAAAGH!"_

"CALM DOWN, CHOPPER!"

Nami chuckled as she watched her crew's antics before turning to her captain. "Well Luffy, looks we're finally heading out. So..." She held up the log pose. "Which way, hm?"

Luffy looked over the compass needles before blinking in surprise and pointing at one. "Hey, is that one pointing at Kayaku?"

Nami looked at the one he was talking about and blinked in surprise. "Huh. I guess it is. It must not have had time to set..." Almost instantly, she regretted her words as her captain grinned in a way she did _not_ like.

"Perfect! We're following that one!"

Nami felt a bead of cold sweat run down her forehead. "W-what do you mean, Luffy?"

"Simple! We're following the Log Pose _all_ the way back to the start of the New World and checking out that volcano we passed!"

"WHAT!? Luffy, why the hell would you want to do _that!?"_

Luffy snickered happily. "Because there was adventure on that island! I could _smell_ it!"

Nami opened her mouth to protest...

"It's a captain's _or~der!"_

And promptly shut it with a click. She then collapsed against the Sunny's railing, tears of panic rolling down her cheeks. "Oh god, here we go again..." She groaned.

Luffy, meanwhile, stood on the Sunny's head and smirked out to sea. "Come on, guys!" He cried out.

"Let's set sail!"


	9. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

About three weeks after the Straw Hat Pirates left, a peaceful day came to Kayaku Island.

The sun was shining, the children were playing, the fishermen were out at sea...

"SHASHASHASHA!"

And Raijax was roaring with laughter in the town's pub.

"SHASHASHASHA!" The sharkman bellowed heartily, doubling over in his mirth as he pounded the bar helplessly with his fist. "OH, WHAT A DAY! WHAT A _LOVELY_ DAY!"

"Well well, ye seem to be in a good mood today, Mister Scourge!"

Raijax spun on his personal reinforced stool and shot the piratical mayor an eager grin.

The sharkman was currently devoid of his armor, instead clad in casual clothing: an oversized set of somewhat roughshod jeans, a coarse black leather jacket with a pair of wide open shark jaws depicted on the back, a white t-shirt with the words ' **BITE ME** ' printed across it in block letters, and a black and white neckwarmer with a cow-skin pattern wrapped around his throat.

"You're damn _right_ I am, Polly!" Raijax cackled, his entire body shaking vigorously with glee as he held up a hand and waved around a newspaper. "Have you read today's special edition?"

Polly let out a good-natured scoff as he slipped onto a stool next to the sharkman. "No, on account o' how ye keep swipin' me paper after it's delivered since the Coos all avoid ye'!"

Raijax had the decency to glance away sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head. "Ah... eheh... those birds have a hell of a memory..."

Polly snickered in amusement before waving a hand. "Ah well. Anyways, the article?"

"Oh, right, right!" Raijax hastily snapped the paper open, his eyes eagerly taking in the article he'd read thrice before. "Listen to this: _'Yesterday, the New World was rocked on a geopolitical level as the kingdom of Dressrosa was levelled to the ground, and its ruler, the now ex-Warlord of the Seas and nefarious black-market dealer Joker, Donquixote Doflamingo, was arrested for crimes including, but not limited to, weapons trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, false imprisonment, slavery, and crimes against humanity. The arresting marines, including Admiral 'Fujitora' Issho, have accredited Doflamingo's defeat to none other than the already world-famous pirate alliance of equally former Warlord, Trafalgar Law, and...'"_

Raijax snickered for a second before throwing his head back and roaring with laughter, pounding the bar once anew. "MONKEY D. LUFFY, AKA MY JACKASS OF A CAPTAIN! SHASHASHA!"

Polly laughed at his recently new friend's merriment. "Har har har! It sounds like yer captain's gotten a bit busy! Although..." He cocked an eyebrow in curiosity. "Do ye really have to keep calling him a jackass?"

Raijax's grin _somehow_ managed to widen further. "Are you kidding? Were you not listening? He pounded _Doflamingo!_ The most despicable and heinous slave trader on both sides of the Red Line _and_ this half of the century! Hell, I was _sold_ in one of his damn shops! And now... LUFFY BEAT HIM!" Raijax collapsed on the bar and howled with laughter. "THAT JACKASS UPPED MY DEBT _AGAIN_ AND HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW IT, SHASHASHA! I'LL BE INDEBTED TO HIM TO DEATH AND BEYOND! _SHASHASHA!"_

"HAR!" Polly bit out a laugh. "Well I'll be! That _does_ sound like cause to celebrate!"

Raijax shuddered as a burst of giggles ran through him. "And it's not even the best part!"

The mayor blinked in shock. "No? What could possibly be better?"

Raijax fumbled with the paper for a second before shoving it into the human's arms. "Read it, read it!"

Polly chuckled at the sharkman's overeager antics before doing as he was told, scanning over the words. " _'Furthermore, over the course of their escape, several nearby civilians testified to witnessing seven pirate captains pledging their loyalty to-'"_

"I HAVE BROTHEEERS, SHASHASHASHAAA! _FIVE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED OF THEM_!" Raijax finally burst out, roaring his joy to the heavens as he flung his arms wide in jubilation.

Polly laughed in agreement, pounding the sharkman on his shoulder. "HAR HAR HAR! Good for you, lad! Truly a reason to celebrate!"

"I agree wholeheartedly!" Raijax smirked. "And in the spirit of that sentiment..." He swung an arm out over the pub. "NEXT TEN ROUNDS ARE ON ME!"

The statement was met with a roar of approval from the patrons present.

"I'll drink to that, matey!" Polly cackled.

Raijax snickered at the sentiment and started to reach across the bar for a bottle...

"RAIJAX!"

Before freezing as a fisherman burst into the pub, panting heavily in exertion.

"Ship... on the horizon..." He panted. "Weird design... no flag..."

Raijax's eye twitched in impotent fury for a second before slamming his fist down on the pub as he stood up. "Right, I'll make this quick. You all know the deal."

"Aye, aye," Polly rolled his eyes. "Stay inside, raise the sea wall, keep a close eye on things."

"And touch my imported Drum Whiskey and die." The sharkman topped off with a snarl as he stalked out of the building, sliding his neckwarmer up over his snout.

 **-o-**

Raijax narrowed his eyes contemplatively at the bottom of the ship as he circled beneath it, taking in the design.

The ship didn't look like your standard pirate ship - but considering the kooky designs pirates favored, that wasn't saying much. And one of the more welcome differences was the low freeboard. Swimming a bit lower, he angled himself upward and started swimming as hard as he could, shooting out of the water and over the side of the ship onto its deck.

Raijax cocked an eyebrow as he took in the... bar? That was set into ship for a second before dismissing it with a snarl and slamming the butt of his trident against the deck. "Alright, whoever is on board, come out and identify yourself. I'm the protector of this island, and if I don't like you, I'll introduce you to a good friend of mine: _Davy Jones."_

"Please, wait, there's no need for violence."

The sharkman tensed as a figure jumped off the bar's overhang and onto the deck before him. She was a relatively short human woman, with short blond hair, a young face and a generous figure. She was scantily clad in a leopard-patterned bikini, with a black-and-white striped thigh-high on her right leg, a white cape slung over her shoulders, and a quiver full of arrows hanging off the back of her hip. Perhaps the most notable aspect of her was that she had a large green snake with a dopey expression slung around her body, tasting the air with his tongue as he stared at Raijax.

"I apologize for our lack of flag, but we felt that discretion was best." The woman explained. "Allow me to introduce myself: My name is Marguerite. I am-"

"A Kuja Pirate." Raijax finished for her flatly. "I recognize the snake."

Marguerite tensed as she was suddenly overcome with a sense of dread. "You... know about us."

"Hancock and I became..." A dark growl rumbled out of Raijax's throat as he searched for the right word. " _Acquaintances_ about six years ago, when I crossed the Calm Belt."

The Kuja swallowed heavily as she took a step back, her hand slowly drifting to wrap around the tail of her serpent. "What... _kind_ of acquaintances?"

The sharkman outright snarled as he twisted his head and pointed at a cluster of diamond-shaped scars on the back of his neck that were _far_ too familiar for Marguerite's taste. _"Intimate."_

Marguerite instantly broke out in a cold sweat. "I'm... certain she had a good reason..."

Raijax nodded slowly. "She did. I ripped a fang out of the mouth of one of her ship's Yuda Serpents."

Marguerite relaxed slightly.

The sharkman pinned her with a cold glare. "After it tried to _swallow me whole."_

 _That_ caused her to wince in a confusing mix of embarrassment and sympathy. "Ah..."

Raijax slowly started to tap his trident in the palm of his hand. "Normally, I'd just kill you here and now and be done with you. But-!" he held his hand up reassuringly. "I'm a changed fishman. I'm kinder. More merciful." And with that, he promptly crushed the shaft of his trident in a knuckle-popping grip. "You've got five seconds to explain why you're here before before I turn you into shark bait."

Marguerite hesitated slightly as she faltered for words.

"Four, three, two..."

"She's here to help, Raijax."

The Sharkman froze instantly, his eyes wide in shock. Both he and Marguerite turned their gazes to the bar in the ship, where a large octopus fishman with a tattoo of the sun was stepping out, his gaze focused on Raijax.

"And so am I." Hatchan continued somberly.

Marguerite blinked in confusion at the fishman's unfamiliar tone before rallying herself. "Y-yes, he's right! I apologize for my queen's actions, but Empress Hancock and I are friends of Luffy. You see-"

"Quiet." Raijax growled as he snapped a glare at her.

Marguerite's serpent hastily snapped its tail into her mouth, silencing her completely. The girl didn't particularly mind, considering how she swiftly wilted under Raijax's gaze.

The sharkman slowly turned his gaze back to the more traditional fishman, his expression unreadable. "You've got a _lot_ of nerve, Hatchan." He growled.

Hachi swallowed nervously before clenching his fists. "I've got even more regret, Raijax." He said. "A lot of regret... for a lot of things. Things I'm not proud of. I can't apologize enough for what I've done, so..." He swallowed heavily. "I'll accept whatever punishment you choose."

Raijax stared at Hatchan silently for a moment before stepping forwards. In two steps, he was within a foot of Raijax.

SLAM!

"GAH!"

And in less than a second, his fist was occupying the space where Hatchan's head had been, while the other fishman lay groaning on the deck.

"Hachi!" Marguerite jerked forwards in concern.

"Don't!" Hachi stopped her with a raised hand, his gaze focused on the sharkman. He winced as he nursed his bruised snout before sighing in resignation. "That was payback for kicking your ass in Arlong Park, wasn't it?"

To both his and Marguerite's shock, Raijax scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Hell no."

"Then... oh!" Hatchi slapped three fists into three palms. "Was it for the trick I pulled six minutes in?"

 _That_ earned a snort. "Not even _close."_

"Uh..." The octopus cocked his head and scratched his head with three fingers. "Right, I got nothing."

Raijax reached up and jerked his neckwarmer down, exposing his smirk. "That was for waking me up at _six in the god-be-damned morning."_ He extended a hand. "Long time no see, you old dumbass."

Hatchi blinked in surprise for a second before smiling and taking the hand. Once Raijax yanked him back to his feet, he shook his hand firmly and pounded him on the back. "It's good to see you too, you shark bastard!"

Marguerite blinked and stared at the pair of aqua-mammal hybrids in confusion before glancing up at her snake. "Is this... perhaps one of those 'guy things' Luffy mentioned?"

The snake hissed in equal confusion as it shrugged its body.

Meanwhile, Hatchan was smiling and scratching the back of his head. "So, you really _don't_ hold me and Arlong beating you up against me?"

Raijax scoffed once anew, his smirk growing wider. "Hachi, my memory of that day might be a bit foggy, but my body doesn't lie: I've got scars from katanas, scars from rapiers, scars from daggers, scars from _arrows,_ " he shot a brief glare at Marguerite, causing a shiver to run down her spine before he redoubled his smirk at Hatchi. "But one thing I _don't_ have?" He let out a chuckle. "Scars from sabres."

Hatchan blinked as he processed this for a second before his eyes bulged out and his mouth dropped open in shock. "W-w- _what!?"_ He stammered, jabbing his fingers at the sharkman. "I didn't even _scratch_ you?!"

" _Preeeetty_ sure I knocked you silly in the first few minutes of the fight and then used you as a living club." Raijax cackled.

The octo-swordsman gaped at him for a second before slapping his hands to his face with a moan. "So much for officially being the best swordsman on Fishman Island…"

"Eh, I wouldn't worry about it." Raijax waved his hand airily. "Getting beat by me is no shame."

"Your modesty is humbling." Hachi deadpanned.

"Ah, look on the bright side! Your takoyaki only _half_ tastes like ass!" Raijax chuckled.

"MY TAKOYAKI IS DELICIOUS AND YOU KNOW IT!" The fishman fumed. "IN FACT, MY FLOATING STAND IS THE MOST POPULAR ONE ON FISHMAN ISLAND!"

By this point, Marguerite had grown bored with the conversation and had turned her attention away from the pair and over the sea. Almost instantly, however, she froze and stared. "Um... excuse me?"

"Oh yeah, you _did_ mention you wanted to build one way back when, right? Good for you! But why bring it here? Seems like a bit of a risky locale to be selling takoyaki in."

"I already told you: Marguerite and I are here to help you protect Kayaku."

"Oh yeah, speaking of her, what's a Kuja doing out of the Calm Belt anyways?"

"Oh, that's easy: Hancock escorted her to Fishman Island, and when she learned that I was buying supplies to come here, she ordered me to take her with me! Brrr, I tell you: beautiful woman, scary personality!"

"Uh, pardon me?" Marguerite tried again, this time with a little more urgency in her voice.

"That just raises even more questions! Like- wait! Big question first: how did you get here? I know _exactly_ where all of Kayaku's Eternal Poses are at all times, and there's only a one-in-eight chance of getting here via the normal Log Pose!"

"Oh, _that_ was an easy one: I saved a giant octopus from some sharks that were hunting it and asked for directions, and he gave me a lift until the Log Pose locked on!"

"Wait, giant-? Agh, I _knew_ I should have made sushi out of that damn cephalopod when I had the chance! Me and my stupid bleeding he-!"

THWACK! SMACK!

"OUCH!"

"ACK!?"

The pair's conversation was interrupted by a firm snake tail slapping them upside their heads. "WILL YOU LISTEN TO ME ALREADY!?" Marguerite demanded furiously, her serpent coiling back around her protectively.

"Damn Kuja bitch..." Raijax snarled as he glared at her.

"Marguerite!" Hatchan whined as he rubbed the back of his head. "What'd you do that for?!"

Marguerite didn't say anything, merely indicating the galleon flying a Jolly Roger barely a hundred yards off the port bow.

Hatchan blinked numbly. "Ah..."

Raijax narrowed his eyes at the flag before snarling in exasperation. "The Great Plain Pirates. One of Kaidou's fleet. Should have seen _this_ coming." He shook his head with a sigh and a smile. "Damn jackass captain..."

Hatchan quickly recovered and crossed his arms with a firm snort. "Let me guess: Luffy pissed off Kaidou and now they're here to get some revenge?"

"That obvious?"

"It _is_ Luffy."

Raijax sighed again as he started rolling his shoulders in anticipation. "Ah well, fair enough. Now then, from what I've read, these guys have about three hundred members. I'll take one hundred and fifty, you take one hundred and fifty?"

Hatchan rolled his eyes as he reached over the bar's counter and brought out a bandolier full of swords and a quiver of arrows. "Come on, give Marguerite some credit. I've sailed with her for awhile now, I know she's strong. Plus, she _is_ a Kuja. One hundred each, nice and simple."

"Spoilsport."

Marguerite glanced between them swiftly, her eyes chock full of disbelief before she finallu couldn't take it any more. "Are the both of you _insane!?_ Those are New World pirates! You can't just treat this like it's some sort of game!"

"So are you staying here or...?" Hachi held up the quiver questioningly.

Marguerite worked her jaw for a second before huffing in exasperation and snatching the quiver from his hand and slipping it into place. "If _only_ so I can watch your backs and guarantee that you won't get yourselves killed. But please, I beg of you: don't be reckless. This will _not_ be an easy task."

 **-o-**

"I can't _believe_ how easy that was." Marguerite breathed, her voice numb with shock as she and the fishmen watched the galleon burn from the deck of the Takoyaki 8.

Raijax chuckled as he scarfed down the large tray of takoyaki he'd dug out of the ship's fridge. "Hachi was right, Kuja bitch, you _are_ pretty scrappy! That was more fun than usual! The fire was new, though. Did you start it?"

"My bad, sorry!" Hachi offered as he tied a bandage around his top right arm with his teeth. "Duel in the kitchen wound up breaking the floor and spilling into the gundeck. Things kinda went downhill from there. I almost wound up on my own menu!" he finished with a laugh.

"That should _not_ have been that easy." Marguerite reiterated, still numb from the battle. "They were _New World_ pirates who served under Hundred-Beast Kaidou."

Raijax rolled his eye at her. "Yeah, and you're a Kuja bitch from the Calm Belt who served under the Pirate Empress Boa Hancock."

"Plus, you told me that you've been training in how to use Haki since you were a little girl!" Hachi added.

"That too." Raijax nodded. "Simply put, you're a badass like us. Get used to it."

Marguerite slowly swapped her gaze between the shark and octopus fishmen before slumping to her knees. "I'm a monster." She moaned to herself as much as anyone. "My whole life, I thought I was merely above average and instead it turns out I'm as much a monster as you two."

Hatchan blinked before looking at Raijax in confusion. "Uh... was that a compliment?"

Raijax shrugged as he tossed the rest of the takoyaki into his jaw. "Hell if I know. Anyways..." He wiped his forearm over his teeth, clearing them of crumbs. "Mind telling me what brought you here in the first place?"

The octo-swordsman smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. "Well, basically, I heard about how Luffy'd claimed Kayaku as his territory and how you were guarding it, so I decided to come here so that I could both apologize _and_ help you out. I still owe Luffy for everything he's done, after all."

The question appeared to snap Marguerite out of her funk as well. "Indeed, that is how I heard of it as well. The Kuja Pirates were picking up supplies from an island close to Sabaody when we heard rumors of Luffy's new territory. I asked my queen permission to aid Luffy in whatever manner I could, and she agreed."

Raijax blinked and looked at her in disbelief. "She let you up and leave... just like that?"

Marguerite took on a slightly embarrassed expression as she looked away with a blush. "My queen is... rather infatuated with Luffy."

Raijax blinked again before looking distinctly green around his gills. "Aaaaand just like that I've lost my appetite."

"You hurl it, you mop it!" Hatchan warned him.

Raijax cast an acrid glare at him before sighing and standing up, cracking his back in the process. "Well, anyways, welcome to Kayaku! Do me a favor and sail us into port, will you? Meanwhile..." He shrugged his jacket off. "I'm gonna go up on the deck to try and get some color back in my chest."

Hatchan blinked as he processed that statement before hastily waving his arms. "W-w-wait, what!? Raijax, are you sure about that!?"

"Hm?" The sharkman looked at Hachi as he started to tug his shirt up. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Uh, well... I mean..." Hatcnan lowered his arms hesitantly. "Your chest...?"

Raijax stared at him for a second before smirking. "Now why would I want to hide my chest? After all..."

Without warning, he peeled his shirt off and bore his chest for all to see.

"I've got nothing to be ashamed of."

Hatchan and Marguerite stared at the sharkman's chest in shock.

Finally... Hatchan laughed. Out of the blue, he just doubled over and busted out laughing, catching himself on the ship's counter in an effort to keep himself from keeling over.

Marguerite herself was giggling in amusement, a hand whipping up to cover her mouth as she let out her amusement. Her snake, meanwhile, guffawed and flailed uproariously.

Raijax grinned at their reactions for a second before throwing his head back and laughing in agreement.

And through it all, the straw-hat wearing skull and crossbones emblazoned across his chest laughed with him.

 **-FIN-**


End file.
